Holy CAshizzle
by Freak-who-is-freakishly-freaky
Summary: 6 teen assassins' lives are turned even more upside down when the TFA people come crashing into their world... and they in return are thrown into the TFA world, quite literally. Naturally, they stuff everything up. Rated M for many things...
1. Prolouge

Part 1 – prologue – pre-war

**Hey everyone! With part one, I know that it's long before Autobots and Decepticons existed, but I just call their **_**ancestors **_**that for simplicity's sake, well the Autobots anyway. The 'Cons' ancestors are called Koancons, or 'Cons for short, because of where they live. Ok? You cool with that? I hope you like Holy CA-shizzle! It's crazy...**

Prologue – pre-war

Feel Like Home  
By Fort Minor

_Your first breath in and the clock starts ticking._

**No-one's POV**

_71 million stellar cycles before the Great War began..._

His name was to be Echo. Of course, he wasn't named yet, as he was less than 5,000 stellar cycles.

He didn't come into this world like sparklings normally do. A Kaoncon general, named Firestorm for his short fuse, forcefully interfaced with the sparkmate of the king Cybertron at the time, named Andoah. No-one except for her dead creators knew what her name means.

For the first three stellar cycles of his life, Echo lived with his mother and 'father' Nova Prime. They tried to be the best parents they could, but they were constantly needed on duty, being the two highest ranked Autobots on Cybertron. They treasured they got with their only son.

They were both at a meeting with the High Counsel when the Kaoncons attacked.

They were running out of troops. They needed everyone they could get. The new plan was to get sparklings so they could be raised as 'Cons, even though they were all 'Bots. It was a sick and desperate plan. The 'Cons were dying because they couldn't get enough supplies. The 'Bots were slowly killing them off.

Firestorm and his small group blasted through the ceiling of Echo's room. Autobots rushed in and tried to defend the sparkling, but Firestrom's mechs held them off. Firestorm himself walked casually over to Echo's cradle, snatched up the crying sparkling and called for retreat. The 'Cons took off.

Mission accomplished.

oOo

_16,000 stellar cycles later..._

A huge white mech sat beside a three room building. It was night time, so the mech was gazing at the stars. His oddly shaped wings glinted in the faint light as he lay down for a better view of the stars.

He was different. He had been constructed uniquely when he became a youngling and got his armour. He had the ability to transform, something which had been just a legend several thousand stellar cycles before he was created. It was just a start, still in its experimental stages, but so far it was working. No-one apart from Black River, the one who had made him like this, knew about it. For everyone's sake, it had to stay that way.

Echo heaved a sigh. He was exhausted, as usual, but he couldn't recharge, as always. Every day, he flew a total of half the way around the planet, at least. He worked hard and gave everything his best shot, always. When he got home, he practiced combat until he collapsed, every single day. And yet, he could rarely recharge.

Perhaps it was because he was always on alert, always ready to fight. He wasn't even sure _why _he was permanently on high alert. Perhaps it was because he was always fearful that Autobots would destroy everything. He knew it was unhealthy, but he couldn't help it.

And even that didn't make sense; he flew so far so he could secretly go to a small 'Bot high school, he wanted to understand the ones of the same side who made all the 'Cons' lives miserable, he wanted to try and change that and make it better for the 'Cons, he wanted a better life. For example, when he collapsed in the middle of training and was totally spent, whoever he was training with would kick him until he struggled to his feet... only to fall right back down again.

Nothing made sense anymore.

Echo lay there, gazing at the stars, peace slowly relaxing his overworked systems. Eventually, he slipped into a shallow recharge. He did that most nights.

oOo

Echo was jolted awake by a Seeker flying noisily overhead.

He sat bolt up and stayed in that position for a minute while he slowed down his pulse rate. He woke up like that most mornings.

Echo got up and grabbed some energon from his secret stash on the roof. His retractable visor covered his optics, concealing his Pit fire-like optics, a dead giveaway that he was a 'Con. He transformed, always making sure no-one saw him when he did, and took off towards school.

Thanks to his stealth alt mode design, he slipped past the radar easily. Thanks to his stellar cycles of experience, he slipped past everyone with a lifetime of practice. Thanks to his speed, he got to school early.

He was greeted by almost everyone who saw him, being one of the most popular students in his high school. He went over to his two best friends, a silver mech named Nightspot and an azure mech named Firmament.

"Hey, Echo, what's shakin'?" Nightspot smiled.

"Nothing much," Echo replied, "how's it going, Firmament?"

"It's all good," he answered.

They didn't get much of a chance to talk when the bell went. The first lesson, which wasn't really a lesson, was PC, or Pastoral Care. Echo said bye to his friends and made his way to the classroom.

He had chats with the other members of his PC, as usual. The PC teacher came in, late as always, and called the role. The announcements were called out and everyone paid all their attention to the last announcement in particular:

"All:" the teacher read out, "the end of millennia dance is coming up! We're looking for volunteers to help set it up and organise it. As for the rest of you, start looking for someone to go with."

There was a buzz of excitement from everyone. Echo asked if he could be DJ and got the job. He was asked several times who he was going with, and each time he said he didn't know yet. He asked everyone who asked him who they were going with, and they all already knew.

Echo thought that it was be a bad idea to ask anyone to go with him, because he was being the DJ and that meant that he wouldn't get a chance to dance at all. It would suck for whoever he might ask, so he decided not to ask at all.

oOo

_The last day of school..._

Echo got to school very early so he could help set up. That meant he had to get up in the middle of the night, but he was used to it so he didn't mind. When he arrived, there were only a few others, bringing in stuff. He joined in automatically. They were holding the dance in the gym, so that was where they were taking all the stuff. More students and teachers arrived and soon it was done and ready to go.

Soon enough, students began to come in small groups or pairs. No-one except for Echo was alone. Echo got up to the DJ booth and began playing music. His choices were wise, so it wasn't long before everyone was on the dance floor.

A little while after he began playing the music, the students poured in and so did the requests.

The night passed too quickly for him. Before he knew it, it was all over and he helped packing up. When he left, almost everyone had already gone home. He walked down a deserted street, burned and smashed, old Kaoncon territory but destroyed by Autobots. He knew he was alone, so he transformed.

But he couldn't.

His other worldly screams ripped through the dead place, echoing faintly in the audio receptors of mechs and femmes roaming the streets late at night.


	2. Alien substance

Chapter 1 – alien substance

A/N: Orn – about 13 Earth days, klick – a second

Crazy  
By Simple Plan

Has everybody gone crazy?  
Is anybody gonna save me?  
Can anybody tell me,  
What's going on?  
Tell me,  
What's going on?  
If you open your eyes,  
You'll see that something is wrong.

**Echo's POV**

When I woke up, I found I was lying in an unfamiliar healing berth. Where was I?

"Ah, you're awake," a medic came into my field of vision, "my name is Seasalt. You're on life support now and later you'll have to go into surgery."

I looked at the medic with questioning optics and he continued.

"We don't know what happened, but we do know that all your internal systems have been replaced with… something we've never seen before." The medic explained.

I was petrified. How did this happen? What were these things inside me? Would I die? So many questions flooded my CPU. I tried to talk, to move, but found it was far too painful to move my mouth.

"I advise that you don't move or speak," Seasalt suggested, too late.

oOo

I was recharging lightly and was awoken when someone shook me roughly by the shoulders. My optics snapped open and I looked up into the silver face and blue face of Nightspot and Firmament.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Nightspot asked in an undertone, releasing my shoulder.

"I'm alright," I answered, "So, do you have any idea what those things inside me are?"

Firmament shook his head, "Sorry man, no idea. Well... no logical idea anyway."

"Explain."

"You know those sparkling stories about that tiny black mechs on the blue and green planet? How they were made of delicate, soft material?"

"Yeah, everyone knows that. 'Little Bear the Organic'. What about it?"

"I think," he paused, looking for the right words, "I looked at the reports and I think... those things inside you are made out of the same stuff."

There was a silence as I tried to absorb it. How was this possible? It was just a story right? How did the things even get inside me in the first place? What did this mean? What would they do to me?

Someone was coming down the hall. Nightspot said, "We gotta go before they find us. See ya, bro." With that, they turned and leapt out the window, just as a medic came in. I powered down my optics and pretended to be recharging.

After a while, he left me, plunging the room into darkness once more. I kept my optics darkened for a few klicks before opening them again. I saw a faint glow on my berthside table. I looked closer and saw it was a simple data pad, with the message, 'get better, Echo. When you get out, we'll party'.

I didn't need a signature to know it was from the guys; it was the only one there.

oOo

**No-one's POV**

_4 orns later..._

The bell rang and school ended for that day. Echo said goodbye to his friends, transformed and headed home. Holidays were short.

A shadow watched him, untrusting. This shadow had suspected Echo as being someone or something other then what he appeared to be. The shadow raced after Echo, keeping out of sight. As it ran, it activated a cloaking device so that scanners couldn't pick up its Autobot energy signature.

When Echo arrived home, he crept inside as silently as he could, using the shadows and hoping no-one saw. The other Kaoncons did see him but ignored him, they always thought he was disgusting, even when he was just a sparkling.

He snuck out back, where he recharged. Echo heaved a sigh; the day had been long and getting by his father always drained him.

He slid to the ground in a crumpled heap. He shuttered his optics and before he knew it, he was deep in recharge.

The shadow watched silently, electric blue optics widened as the truth showed itself. It hadn't been detected because the 'Cons were too poor for that technology, especially since most of them were in living in the slums. Then an idea formed in its CPU.

It opened its comm. link and spoke quietly into it, "Hey, I found something you won't believe."

"_Why are you talking so quietly?_"

"Shh! You gotta be quiet as well, they might hear us."

"_Bro, what is it?_"

"You know that guy at school everyone likes?"

"_Yeah, Echo… what about him?_"

"Well… it turns out that he's a Kaoncon."

"_What?!_"

"SHH! He might hear you."

"_Do you think that he might be a 'Con spy?_"

"I'm certain of it. We have to… _eliminate _him tomorrow at school. Spread the word as fast as you can."

"_You know me too well. Before school starts tomorrow, everyone will know._"

"Excellent, now go and tell everyone to secretly bring weapons as well and come early so we have more time to… teach him a lesson."

"_I'm on it. See ya._"

"Bye." With that, the shadow closed the comm. link. It glared down at Echo recharging peacefully, totally unaware at what was going on. The shadow then left as quickly as it could.


	3. Unfair

Chapter 2 – unfair

A/N: Orn - About 13 Earth days

Rock Bottom  
By Eminem

_This song is dedicated to all the happy people,  
__All the happy people who have real nice lives,  
__And have no idea of what it's like to be broken._

**Echo's POV**

I awoke the next morning and found I was curled up against the cold beside my hut, like usual.

I went out and grabbed some energon, gulping it down and heading out. No-one was awake and I had no real reason to hang around. They hadn't even cared when I finally came home from hospital yesterday.

The first, smaller sun, the blue Prima, was only just rising, bathing everything in a blue-grey light, like the moon. I changed and flew out of the 'Con headquarters. It had been set up in the biggest 'Con gathering on Cybertron; the Kaon Slums. That's why we're called the Kaoncons. Although we couldn't get anywhere better, it was a good place to set up. It meant that these mechs and femmes who lived around here had some form of protection and comfort. There were military shacks all through the Slums, guard/watch buildings (well, you can't call them towers) ringing the whole place. Each military place was marked with a brown door. Each military place had a huge underground bomb shelter, in case the 'Bots decide to attack.

The whole place, which covered almost the entire city-state, was only just starting to wake up. As I flew, I saw Cybertronians coming out of their tiny huts, starting the day, beginning various jobs, all looking tired.

I arrived at school long before anyone arrived. I sat beside the large metal building, and waited a while before anyone came, watching as the larger ball of raging fire, Fallen, rose up and slowly chased Prima across the azure sky. I didn't know how long it was, and couldn't be bothered to check my internal chronometer.

The first one to turn up was the headmaster, a really nice guy. "Hello Echo. How long have you been here?" he asked.

I shrugged, standing up as he unlocked the door, "Not long."

He nodded and we both entered the school. I sat by my locker, waiting for friends to turn up, thinking silently to myself. Time passed, and again I couldn't be bothered to check how much. Students started turning up, they smiled and nodded silent greeting which I returned as they passed. I noticed a glint in their optics, something cold and negative.

More time passed, and when there were heaps of students there, they gathered as if on a silent signal. They backed me into a corner, raising weapons they had kept hidden until now. Even though I was a couple of heads taller than them, they heavily outnumbered and outgunned me, and I didn't want to kill or hurt them or destroy the building just to escape (I was too soft for that), and because of all of that, I was scared, albeit slightly.

"What's going on?" I asked them, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"We know your secret, Echo," one femme snarled, "You're a Kaoncon!"

Oh slag. At least they didn't know I could transform.

The femme roared, "Kill him!"

I didn't have a chance to react before they hit me with everything they had, shooting, kicking, punching, tearing, shocking, yelling, swearing, biting, whipping. I curled up into a protective ball. There was no way I would return the violence.

"I won't fight you!" I shouted, but it was almost swallowed by the roars of the crowd, "I won't run from those I call friends!"

"You're a 'Con!" someone barked, "a disgusting, horrible, violent 'Con! You deserve to die!" they obviously didn't see the irony in that.

Energon and a strange red liquid pooled around me. I tried to protect my spark as best as I could so that I might have some kind of chance of surviving, although I think that might be in vain. My armour was thicker than theirs, so it was harder to penetrate and harder to kill me, but they were getting pretty close. They smashed my visor and cut one of my burning crimson optics.

Over my screams and the yelling crowd, I heard Nightspot and Firmament shout in unison, "What the pit are you doing?!"

I couldn't see them, the energon in my eyes made everything look weird. My hearing was still good, and I cringed when someone boomed, "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" Everyone went quiet.

"Echo's a Kaoncon!" someone shouted, "We were teaching him a lesson!"

"Is this some kind of sick joke?!" the newcomer demanded, "Step aside!"

They silently shuffled away and formed a wide path. I curled up tighter, not wanting to be so exposed. I felt so vulnerable, unable to feel one leg, everything hurting, my systems struggling to keep on working. My left optic was blind.

I heard heavy footsteps approaching me. Someone tall stopped before me. I could feel rather than saw all those optics on me and I tried to push myself into the wall.

"Stand up," the voice of the figure before me growled.

I tried to stand up, but I think I only had one leg or it was paralysed. I fell right back down, unused to having only one thing to support me.

"Stand up!" the figure barked.

I used the wall to support me as I tried to stand up, but I couldn't. A large hand grabbed me roughly and hauled me up. A face was shoved close to mine and I recognised it instantly.

"Headmaster," I rasped, "why?"

"Because you're a Kaoncon spy!" he snarled, "for your crime, you must die!"

What crime? For being created? What had I done that was so bad I deserved to die? Come to school so I could get educated? Try and look for a better life? Try and understand the Autobots? Think differently? Should I die because I wanted freedom and justice? I thought that was what the 'Bots were all about, freedom, truth and justice.

If so, and I deserved to die for what I believed in, they should all be deactivated too.

A fist punched me, the other hand releasing me and I fell to the ground. There was cruel laughing and then a chant.

"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!"

"No! Don't! Please!" I begged, "I'll change! I swear to Primus I'll be good!"

Silence fell over the ground, an anxious, waiting silence as the headmaster placed a foot on my neck and started crushing it. The silence was shattered when two voices yelled.

"Don't! What the Pit did he even do wrong?"

"Yeah! Ya kill 'im and ya'll be as bad as the 'Cons!"

Firmament. Nightspot. Primus, I owed those two my life.

The foot hesitated and lifted after a moment. The headmaster's voice hissed right in my audio receptor, "Run. Run far and fast and never come back. If I _ever _see your disgusting face again, I will rip your spark out... if you even _have _one."

I nodded, trying to keep my tears at bay. My spark was breaking. I considered this school my home and the students and staff my family. Now they wanted me dead.

I dragged myself with only my arms as fast as I could. They laughed their heads off at me. I had never been so humiliated in my entire existence. I was lifted up by two sets of hands.

"Don' worry, Echo, we don' care tha' ya 'Con," Nightspot said, smiling.

"We'll help you. Now, where do you need to go?" Firmament asked.

oOo

The two Primus sent angels named Firmament and Nightspot got me patched up. Turns out that Firmament is quite good at that. Then we had to figure out what to do.

"Well, I can't stay here," I stated, "You heard the headmaster; I show my face again and he'll kill me. He and the others will probably spread the word until everyone knows. So... I have to get out of here."

"Leave?" Nightspot asked, "As in leave _Cybertron_? Tha's extreme. There's gotta be another way—"

"No," I interrupted, "I have to go."

"But—" Firmament began.

"Look, which would you rather: my death or my safety?"

"... Neither of us wants you to leave."

I embraced them both, "I don't want to go, and I really don't want to leave you guys. Forget the 'Cons I live with, _you're _my real brothers, my family. I'll return someday."

"When?" they murmured, their arms wrapped around me protectively.

"I don't know," I admitted, "just someday. I'll come back when I hear a call or whatever. I'll just come back when I can, alright?"

"Promise?" Firmament pulled back and looked me in the optics.

"Shake on it?" Nightspot added, and both of them stuck out their hands. I shook them both and the deal was made. I was bound to my promise, according the unwritten laws of Youth World.

"You know the new exploration ship?" I questioned, "The KAB-2?" everyone knew about it. The KAB-2 was an enormous deep space exploration ship named after the new metal discovered recently: KAB-2. It was extremely strong, very lightweight and the only way to melt it was with extreme heat for a long time, and quiet flexible at the same time. It was the perfect material for a ship.

"Yeah."

"What about if I sneaked aboard it? There'll be a pretty big skeleton crew, since the ship itself is so big, and half of them will be in stasis pods anyway, with more to spare. If I could get into one of those, I could get away from Cybertron and no-one would even notice. It could work! But I'll need your help."

They looked at each other and were silent for a minute, before nodding slowly.

oOo

The KAB was due to take off in three orns, but there were already crew members living on it. My friends and I kept our senses on high as we crept through the halls. Nightspot had stolen a map and was guiding us through the massive (as in five decks with a max of 800 active crew members) ship.

He turned left and we followed him soundlessly down the long and partially lit hall. So far we hadn't run into anyone and were relieved. But we were still extremely cautious. If anyone found out that they were aiding me, we were all dead.

Finally, we made it to the stasis pod room. Thank Primus, we hadn't run into anyone and I hoped no-one ran into my friends as they left.

The pods were pretty big, big enough for me with room to spare. We found an unoccupied one and I turned to say goodbye.

Before I could even say anything, they tackle-hugged me, knocking me to the ground. I was a bit surprised at first but then pulled them close and fought back tears. My spark was twisting painfully so much that I was sure it would break. This was it.

They were the closest thing to brothers I had and there was a very good chance I would never see them again, despite my promise.

"Remember y-your promis-se," Firmament choked. He was crying. I could feel the wetness of his tears against my shoulder.

"I-I will," I whispered, also crying. We were all weeping.

"Puh-please don' g-go," Nightspot begged, wrapping his arms around my neck tightly, "Ya th' be-es' friend Ah eva had."

My spark shattered.

I gripped them tightly. I didn't want to go – they were the only real family I had ever had – but I couldn't stay – my life would be spent hiding and in fear of being recognized and killed. I murmured in their audios, "I'll c-come back, I s-swear. B-but I have t-to go before I ca-an ret-turn."

They got off me and helped me to my feet. I opened the lid of the stasis pod and looked back at them. Tears were streaming down Nightspot's face and Firmament was trying to keep them at bay, but a few still escaped.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and stopped myself from weeping for a moment. "Don't cry. Just live life to the full and wait for me. I can't and won't break my promise." I held their optics for a moment, then stepped inside the pod and shut the lid.

At that moment, I shattered my promise into a million tiny little pieces.


	4. Passing time

Chapter 3 – passing time

A/N: Hello, when Echo wakes up, that's when it goes from movieverse into TF: A. This chapter is kinda like a 'crossing over' chapter if you know what I mean. There are bits of TF: A and movieverse crisscrossing at this point

Timothy  
By JET

_Never used your head,  
__To find out what this whole thing meant.  
__It's not what it seems, but it is,  
__Timothy, where have you been?  
__Timothy, where did you go?  
__Timothy, the boy can throw.  
__Timothy, we found your spaceship,  
__Timothy, did it hurt when you hit the ground?_

**No-one's POV**

The KAB-2 had been travelling for a long time. They had come to another solar system, one they predicted had life on it. There was a small planet, the third from the system's sun, which was, strangely, green and blue, with white forever shifting across its surface.

Weird, but beautiful.

There was an asteroid belt in the system. The crew were flying over it, but then disaster struck – three of six engines gave out. Something had clogged them and forced them to a halt, and the KAB went out of control.

The steered it to the closest planet, as all the others were other side of their orbital rings, the blue, green and white planet. As the ship entered the atmosphere, one clumsy and panicked mech accidentally released Echo's pod, as well as several other empty ones. He was too scared to even notice as he ran from the stasis pod room, nearly deafened by the roar of the incoming ship.

oOo

It was night.

No-one saw the shooting star as it streaked across the sky. There were no humans to know what it was. The animals didn't give a damn.

Only the creatures of the deep took any notice as the huge metal object fell into the water. They scrambled out of the way, but the slower fish got hit and died instantly.

No creature was brave or curious enough to follow the massive object as it sank into the inky depths.

Echo's stolen vessel came to a rest on the ocean floor.

Although, every living creature on Earth gave a damn when an enormous ship fell from the sky, causing a massive explosion and kicking up an unbelievable amount of dirt and dust, _wiping out the dinosaurs._

oOo

_1958_

_8,499,95__0 years later…_

A submarine explored the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. On the side of the vessel in big bold writing was 'S7 and below it was written 'Sector Seven'. It was equipped with an extremely bright light so that the camera could actually pick up what was in front of it. It also had sonar which could detect heat as well as different types of materials.

It was so deep that the craft couldn't even carry humans, as the pressure was incredible down there.

Through the camera, the crew at the control centre of S7 gasped at what they saw.

A massive metal coffin-shaped space ship of some kind, it was most definitely of alien origan.

"Investigate," the commander ordered.

The officer controlling the sub nodded.

The sub moved carefully forward. It prodded the outside of the ship and moved around it, searching for a way in. It found a large hole in the side of the huge vessel and cautiously entered.

The S7 people gasped again in amazement at what was lying inside the ship.

They had found a gigantic robot. The being was home to dozens of out of whack deep sea creatures and plant life had grown on it. It was almost humanoid, with two arms, two legs and a head. It appeared to be hibernating, not dead but alive, as the sonar could tell that it was the source of enough heat to be considered living.

What struck them most was that the robot wasn't all metal. Some parts of it were flesh.

"We have to get that ship up," the commander said, "but leave it all as a whole."

oOo

The airspace around the site of the space ship was cleared, the public told to keep away as the military were 'playing war games'.

S7 ordered in four destroyers, one aircraft carrier and used one of their own aircraft carriers.

They dived and attached hundreds of huge balloons, each with a two metre diameter, around the ship. The balloons were tied on with ten metre long ropes.

When enough balloons were attached, the alien vessel slowly floated upwards. When the balloons surfaced, the vessel remained ten metres below the waves, because of the length of the ropes.

Using the aircraft carrier, they towed the craft extremely slowly to the other aircraft carrier, which was property of S7. The space craft was attached to S7's carrier and they then towed it just as slowly to the shore, where they could take it to their base.

Mission accomplished.

oOo

_1985_

_27 years later…_

S7 had found out much from the alien robot and the vessel.

They named the robot N.B.E 0.5– Non-Biological Extra Terrestrial 0.5, because he was practically robot, but had organic parts as well.

S7 called the alien vessel A.S.V. 1 – Alien Space Vessel 1.

They had found that the flesh was exactly like human skin, it also had working human organs, but they were all a bit damaged. They would heal over time.

It was a Monday when the disaster struck.

Nothing out of the ordinary was happening. All the machines were normal, not failing or going crazy. The S7 staff members were slightly bored, it was just another Monday to them, just another bunch of procedures to follow until the day ended and they could go back to their lives of pretending not to exist.

But then something happened which wasn't part of the boring day to day routines: faint music could be heard, originating from N.B.E. 0.5.

No-one cared at first, since no-one could really hear it at first. But the music grew gradually louder, more intense with each passing second.

The people turned their heads to face the inactive giant. The skin was glowing white as if it was shining from inside.

They began backing away slowly from the being. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

The skin of N.B.E. 0.5 blazed brighter and brighter. Then, with a great crack, a lightning bolt shot out of the skin and struck one of the main machines monitoring the giant, causing it to explode.

The humans dropped everything and ran. They knew when something was getting out of control and when they should go, this was one of those times.

The music continued to get louder until it was thunderous. The lightning kept on striking more frequently until it was impossible to tell one bolt from another, there were so many and so close together.

The bolts then stopped coming from all over N.B.E. 0.5, and only struck from its chest, where its heart would be if it were a human.

After a few deafening moments, it stopped abruptly. The lightning, glowing and music all ceased sharply.

Cautiously, the staff members of S7 who had fled re-entered the huge room. They didn't know what to think at first when they saw a young boy at the feet of N.B.E. 0.5.

He was about 16, with disturbingly white skin, as if he had no blood at all through his veins. He had short snow white hair, sticking up in countless spikes. But this teen wasn't albino, his eyes weren't pink or crimson, they were actually the most intense electric blue anyone had ever seen before. He was very tall, 6.7 feet to be exact. He wore a t-shirt and trousers, both of which looked like liquid silver.

He gazed curiously and silently at the other humans as they approached him.

One of them asked, "What's your name, boy?"

"Argent Amer," the adolescent answered simply.

oOo

_2010_

_25 years later…_

It had been 25 years.

25 long years of torture and pain.

Argent Amer hadn't seemed to age at all since the day they discovered him. He had never seen the light of day. He had never breathed fresh air. He had never known freedom. He had never known anything except the dark, clean cell where the only humans he ever knew kept him and the lab where those same ones, all of them scientists, forced him to endure torturous 'experiments'. They claimed to be working towards something 'better', but Argent knew that they were all just madmen.

It was a Friday when it happened, but Argent didn't know as he didn't even know what the days of the week were called. He had never been educated at all.

He was sitting quietly in his cell. Slowly, a tune formed in his head. He tapped his foot in time with the rhythm. He began humming it, the ground began to vibrate slightly.

The scientists who were all he knew were at his barred door, about to take him for more experiments. They stopped dead when they saw him, fear flaring inside them. Old memories awoke when they saw him.

He was glowing pure white, as if he was shining from the inside. As Argent hummed louder and stronger, the light grew more intense. He looked like a mini sun, blazing with white fiery power.

Then strong music began to play, it sounded like it was coming from somewhere far away and was getting closer and closer…

The entire building shook violently, like a missile had hit it. Everyone stumbled and fell to the ground, everyone except for Argent. He seemed to be in a totally different world, it was like his humming could protect him from anything.

Red lights flashed and sirens wailed. All the S7 staff members knew what that meant; it meant they had to evacuate ASAP. The scientists rushed out, forgetting all about Argent. He just sat there, curled up in the corner, humming his song.

The building rocked again and again, as if it were being rained down upon with bombs. But Argent just went on humming and shining, he didn't even notice anything that was going on around him.

The fierce shaking stopped suddenly, and Argent felt warm air being blown against his face. He turned to face the source. Had anyone else been in his shoes, fear would've frozen them, but Argent stared up into the enormous, white creature's burning emerald eyes without fear.

His time of freedom had finally come.

"Let's go," Argent said simply.

The creature bent down low and Argent climbed on. It took off running, springing into the air and beating its wings powerfully. Argent never looked back as Hoover Dam collapsed, water flooding the valley.

oOo

_20__29_

_19 years later..._

It had taken S7, which was now known as A8, 2 years to find another base. It had taken them 7 more years to gather everything from the flood and set up.

By 2029, they were back in business, and were making progress. Their new base was an island in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, in the area where tracking devices stuffed up so no-one could find them. It was mostly underwater, as the island was quite small, and they made sure to not make it at all evident they were there.

They brought in N.B.E. 0.5 and continued working on him, like nothing had changed.

oOo

_2058_

_29 years later..._

N.B.E. 0.5's optics were 6 feet wide and 3 feet high. It was a Wednesday when they clicked on, revealing their colour:

A burning red like the fires of hell.

Or the _Pit._


	5. It's Chatterbox's fault

Part 2 – 2008

Chapter 4 – it's Chatterbox's fault

The Sound Of Freedom  
By Bob Sinclair feat. Gary Pine and Dolloman

_Everybody'__s free,  
__Got to be free now,  
__Feel good,  
__Sing!  
__Got to feel good about yourself,  
__Everybody's free._

**Armageddon's POV**

Ah, the holidays. Best time of the year. You don't have any school, you can sleep in for however long you feel like, do whatever the hell you think needs doing… yeah, I love the holidays. What makes it even better is that these are the summer holidays, the longest of them all.

The only problem was that I was in my own personalized hell.

I have pink-phobia. I am terrified of all pink, frilly, really girly stuff. Which sucks, as I, Armageddon, am female and for some weird reason, everyone seems to associate pink with girls.

I was standing in Supré, some petrifying fashion shop with, get this, _fluoro pink _everything. My friends had forced me in here or they wouldn't give me any Samedi (which was an energy drink which had the equivalent amount of caffeine as 12 cups of coffee) ever again if I didn't either stay in there for ten minutes or buy something pink and wear it. That, or they'd kill my charges, depending on how long I could stay in here. But I couldn't wear anything pink, so I would have to just stand here.

So why else was I in here? Oh yeah, the schizophrenia. I got one voice in my head, just one, who I know only as Chatterbox. He isn't a bad voice, he just tells me to do random things. He's the reason why I'm weird and crazy.

No-one else knows about Chatterbox.

I felt like screaming and tearing the whole place down, but the dare was done and I couldn't leave now.

Stupid alcohol. Don't drink kids, I drank and I'm a retard. My friends drank and they're bitches now. But this happens when you're fourteen (and underage!). Well, _I'm_ fourteen, Jumpy (The Jester) and (The) Grim (Reaper of Fluffy Bunnies AKA Fluffy) are sixteen, Skullzy (The Permanently Hyper Child AKA Strange, Strange, _Strange,_ Child) and (The Person Who Will) Massare (You All) are fifteen and (Some Random Sticky Tape Obsessed) Fyromaniac (Maniac) is thirteen. We have very long titles. Grim has about 26 different nicknames (Grim, Grim Reaper, Grimmy, The Grim Reaper Of Fluffy Bunnies, Fluffy, Ya Mum Girl, Sparkles, Mrs. Edward Cullen (that's right), Provider Of Samedi, Samedi Girl, Emoth, Emoth DJ, #1 Linkin Park Fan (and by me only, cuz I'm the TF Guru) Meat Bag, Fleshling, Organic, Insect, Dumb Stubbie, Puny Flesh Creature, Loud Flesh Creature, Earthling, Earth Flesh Creature, Primitive Organic, Squishie, Loud Puny Primitive Organic Tiny Insect Flesh Earth Creature... but we don't normally call her Fluffy unless we have a death wish... nah seriously, she's an assassin, just like the rest of us and the rest of the Organisation...). Beat that! And I think she has even more...

'_What did you get us into now, Army?_'

_Shaddup! _I snapped, _this was your idea in the first place! Why do I listen to you, anyway?_

'_Because I'm always right.'_

_How is this in any way correct?_

'_You'll see.'_

I sighed out loud, _cryptic as ever, Chatterbox._

'_Insane as ever, Army.'_

_Duh. I'm schizophrenic because you're here. I thought that was a bit obvious._

These sorts of conversations are normal for me.

"I hate you all," I shouted to the best friends in the world, really, who stood a safe distance away from the shop as in on the next level. I swayed a little and pulled my black hoodie up over my head, covering most of my dead straight black hair and shadowing my pale skin. My eyes were silver and my right pupil was slit instead of round. I was wearing sunnies so that people didn't get freaked.

"That's why we're friends!" Grim Reaper laughed. Her red eyes shone like light bulbs (like Rudolf's nose), her black hair framing her laughing face. She _always _wore black, even on stinking hot days. She, like all of my friends except for Fyromaniac, also had pale skin. Fyromaniac's was dark.

_True, very true indeed_, I thought.

I wondered around, not touching anything in case I got burned. I'm not kidding. I first got scared of pink when I was 2 and got burned by touching a pink doll. I still have the scar. In fact, almost all of my skin is messed up. I don't really mind, I just wear hoodies a lot and never have my photo taken. It actually made global news, now my condition (more like disease) had been called pinkitus. I was hoping that there might be something black in here, being the happy (hyper, insane, crazy, random, strange, wired, odd, unusual, freakish, complete freak, freaky, completely freaky and freakish, utterly freaky freak-thing freak) emo I am, but there were only bright colourful things here.

My ten minutes were almost up, only thirty seconds to go. I swear, this phobia will be the end of me. 20… 19… 18… 17… damnit, this is taking too long. Woe, the agony! 10… 9… 8… 7… I didn't know how much longer I can keep the screams in, I have to get out of here! 3… 2… 1. Finally! The timer went off and I ran straight out of the hellish store, tearing right up the stairs.

I didn't need to see myself to know that pure fury was written all over my face. I didn't know how I knew, but I knew that something was wrong. My friends must've seen it and took off as fast as they could, being drunk made them slower, while my anger made all the effects of alcohol temporarily fade. But then again, we had had 1/5 cans of Samedi each (which were all 500ml), so we were high and drunk at the same time. It's a weird feeling.

I wrapped my hands around Skullzy's neck, not realizing my own strength. I growled, "Where is he?"

She was tall, with brown eyes and short black hair. Only chokes escaped her mouth so I loosened my grip only enough for her to breathe and talk. She replied, "We put the bags down while we were laughing at you and now he's gone. At least the others are still here."

"Why'd you take our eyes off him?" I hissed, "You know the deal, we watch out for each other's charges."

Fyromaniac spoke up, "We were drunk, your fear was funny and we didn't think he'd escape. We're not perfect. Although, the alcohol has worn because of the Samedi, so more like we were incredibly high and crazy." She had dark skin, black hair and purple eyes.

I took it in, mentally examining the logic and released Skullzy. I looked at all five of my best friends: Massacre, Grim Reaper, Skullzy, Jumpy and Fyromaniac. Jumpy was fair skinned, blue eyed and had long red hair. Massacre had green eyes, wavy brown-blonde hair and pale skin.

"We gotta find him," I stated, fear and panic already beginning to well up inside me, but I kept a calm face on.

The Grim Reaper Of Fluffy Bunnies stepped in, being the leader of the Organisation, of which all six of us were the highest ranked, she began, "Massacre and Jumpy, you ask Lost and Found ask if they've seen him." she turned to the rest of us, "the rest of us will check all the stores. Everyone will ask random people if they've seen Armageddon's boyfriend. We'll meet back here in an hour's time. Let's go."

We spread out. I ran from store to store, searching each as fast as I could in my panic, asking everyone in each store I searched if they had seen him. When they said no each time, my fear grew.

After an hour of everyone frantically searching, knowing what might happen if we didn't find him, we all met back at the decided place. All my friends looked a little nervous, but I didn't care and demanded, "I didn't find him, have any of you?"

There was a moment of hesitation, but then they all slowly shook their heads. My shoulders fell and I sat down on the cold tiles. No-one moved to comfort me, they were smart enough to slowly back off and tell everyone else to stand clear. As with what happens with curious meat bags— err, _humans_, a small crowd began to form around me, all wondering what would happen, despite all my friends telling them that they had to go.

I closed my eyes. Being a part-Cybertronian, part-Earth cyborg, I could detect my guy's energy signal. I sat and concentrated, seeking his unique signature. It took me a couple of minutes, but I found him; he was in Myers, one of the biggest stores in the whole mall, taking up a huge space and going on all three levels.

My eyes shot open and I stood up. My vision was still what I had used to find his energy signature, so I couldn't even see anyone else, only him and structures. I sprinted in the direction of him, knocking over people I guessed, but I couldn't see anything carbon-based, i.e., organics.

I ran as fast as I could towards Myers, I could hear my friends chasing me as I knew they would. I skidded to a halt when I got close enough to him and switched my vision back to normal. My friends stopped beside me and asked, "Where is he?"

I pointed to a clothes rack and approached it, rage radiating off me. I shoved the clothes aside and saw him and some 8-year-old girl. I grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up so we were eye-to-optic and snarled, "Where the fuck have you been, 'Con?"

He glared back at me and retorted in that scratchy voice I would know anywhere, "You are way too protective. I'm a grown mech, I can look after myself." So vain. So hot, despite the pink.

My friends and I chuckled at that, "You could if you were your original size, not thirty centimetres tall."

"What are you doing?" a new voice inquired.

I looked down and saw that it was the kid who had spoken. I asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Rachael. Is he that weird guy from Transformers: Animated? My brothers make me watch it every morning," she replied.

We laughed again, "He's not the weird guy," I responded, "He's the traitor, sometimes known as Squeaky the Jet." I held him close to my chest protectively, stroking his head gently. I was protective of all my charges, even though they all got on my nerves.

She gave me the 'WTF?' look and said, "Are there more?"

I exchanged looks with my friends, silently asking if I should tell Rachael. They nodded and I turned back to her and answered, "Yeah, they _all _jumped out of the TV. It was a bunch of fun to see, even though I was thinking I was on too much marijuana or something."

"Say what?" she looked confused again.

I sighed and my friends and I sat down, this was going to be a long story. Rachael got the idea and sat down too.

"Get comfy," I said, "it's a long story." Starsceam climbed on my shoulder, liking the feeling of finally being able to look down on a human again.


	6. Reality TV

Chapter 5 – reality TV

PPR-KUT  
By Linkin Park/Cheapshot & Jubacca ft. Rasco & Planet Asia

_Now it feels like my back's against a wall,  
__I'm taking the fall,  
__Whenever I call,  
__Nobody's responding at all.  
__But I don't know who to trust,  
__They screaming my name._

**Armageddon's POV**

"We were all over at Skullzy's place the other Saturday," I began, gesturing to Skullzy, "we were finishing off a late ASSessment task and we had just finished. Her little brother, Alex, had left the TV on TF: A and had left the scene. I, being the TF lover/guru I am, watched it for a few minutes…"

**Flashback**

I stood in front of the TV, watching TF: A. The episode was "_Megatron rising: Part 2_' and everything was going downhill for the Autobots. I had this thing, I hated clichés and loved it when something new happened, like the bad guys finally winning.

I pointed and laughed at the 'Bots' misfortune, clapping my hands in joy as the 'Bots got their afts kicked.

Massacre came up to me and asked what was going on.

"The 'Bots are gonna die!" I laughed, "Go Team Conny!" by witch I meant the Decepticons.

The others heard my cheering and laughing and came in to investigate. When they saw me and the TV, they knew what was happening straight away.

"Oh," Massacre rolled her eyes. She hated TF, "you are so hopeless, Armageddon."

I grinned and nodded enthusiastically. I saw Megatron be blown up by the Allspark and my shoulders dropped. The explosion was pretty, like they usually are when something blows up, but I don't like it when the bad guys die; they die and lose too often.

Blue light filled the room and we backed slowly away from the TV, where the light was originating. It grew so bright that we had to shield our eyes with our arms.

When the light faded, everything was as it was… except that the TV was now off and every TF: A character from the whole series was standing in the room, the TFs themselves all exactly thirty centimetres tall and the humans normal sized.

There was Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Prowl, Ratchet, Jazz, Sentinel, Ultra Magnus, Megatron, Blitzwing, Starscream, Lugnut, Lockdown, Shockwave, Soundwave, Sari, Captain Fanzone, Professor Sumdac.

"Holy ca-shizzle," we all muttered in sync.

"Now how did this happen?" I wondered out loud, like it was the most normal thing in the world, trying to hide my excitement.

"Where are we?" Bumblebee asked the others, looking around his suddenly huge surroundings.

"Armageddon, you're in heaven, aren't you?" Fyromaniac elbowed me.

"Oh yeah," I grinned. I figured I should tell them where and when they were. I clapped my hands for their attention, "Ok everyone, I don't know what happened just now, so don't even ask. I'm Armageddon, this is Grim Reaper, Massacre, Fyromaniac and Jumpy," I waved to the respective teens, "Welcome to Canberra, Australia, the year 2008."

"Holy slag," Bulkdead swore after a long moment of silence. Wow, this must be serious if _Bulkhead _swore.

An evil grin spread across my face, "Naughty naughty, Bulkhead, you mustn't swear." I turned to the others, "Let's wash his mouth out with soap!" I snatched up the toy-sized Autobot and my friends followed as I carried him to the bathroom and locked the door behind us.

Sari was banging on the door, yelling at us not to, but I just ignored her.

Bulkhead was struggling in my arms, but I held firmly onto him, almost crushing him into my chest, as the others filled up the sink with water and get the soap all bubbly. I got the honours and shoved Bulkhead under the water and jammed the soap into his tiny mouth, enjoying watching him struggle and try to fight back. His screams were muffled, but I could still hear them, and they were music to my ears.

I am so evil. Go me.

I took the soap out and poked my finger in his mouth to get the bits which had broken off out. He choked and bit me, but I didn't really register it, even though anyone else would've cried out or something. Little bugger was good at biting, but he sucked at inflicting pain.

I lifted him out of the water and took my finger out, which followed in a long string of curses and insults. I just repeated the process of washing his mouth out, but had to do it again and again since he just wouldn't stop swearing. Of course, I let the others have a go and they had lots of fun too.

The banging and shouting on the other side of the door eventually ceased. After a time, the dunking and stuff got old, so we just shoved a partly squishy chunk of soap in Bulkhead's mouth so he couldn't get it out. Well, it would take a while anyway.

I unlocked the door and opened it, going first as I guessed the 'Bots would attack. As I expected, a stapler made a bruise on my right shin, I got electrocuted, a tint axe lodged itself into my left thigh and a few shuiken cut both my wrists.

I love blood. I'm not a vampire, I just love that sweet, sweet coppery taste. I am a bloodaholic, someone who either has an addiction to or just enjoys blood, like a druggie or alcoholic. So as soon as blood began to ooze from the wounds, I unconsciously dropped Bulkhead and licked hungrily at the crimson liquid.

I didn't register the WTF looks all the TF: A people gave me, but my friends didn't care. They knew of my love of blood and they actually liked it too.

When the slices were clean, I stared in disbelief at what lay beneath the skin.

It was circuitry. There was dark blue circuitry beneath my skin. I muttered out loud, "I didn't know I was a cyborg."

"What?!" my friends exclaimed in unison and grabbed my arms for a better look. The weird thing was that it should hurt someone with cut-up arms to have them grabbed roughly, but it didn't hurt me at all. Nothing hurt me at all, not even that attack, but I did feel it.

**Pause **

"Hold on a moment," Rachael interrupted, "You're a cyborg?" she looked at me.

I nodded, "Yeah." I showed her the scabs on my arms and a small patch of exposed circuitry on the back of my neck which was rarely ever seen. It had only happened a few weeks ago, so it wasn't healed yet.

"Moving on…" Grim continued.

**Play **

The TF: As began slowly backing away, but I looked up and saw them.

"Is there something wrong with me being a cyborg?" I asked.

They shrugged, not really knowing what to say.

Massacre changed the subject, "What are we going to do with them? We can't have tiny alien robots running around and people from the future spilling the secret."

"Maybe we could take a few of them and look after them at home," Fyromaniac suggested, "but I'm not sure what we're going to do with the people."

We nodded in agreement.

"Armageddon, you pick who you want first," Jumpy offered.

I thought for a moment. I wanted all of them, I loved all of them, but I guess that would be too much and the 'Bots wouldn't really like me after what I did to Bulkhead, "I don't think the 'Bots really like me now, so I think I'll take Starscream, Megatron, and Blitzwing."

Fluffy spoke, "I reckon I'll take the Elite Guard, so that's Jazz, Ultra Magnus and Sentinel Prime."

Fyromaniac announced, "I think I'll have… Optimus Prime, Bulkhead and Prowl."

Skullzy offered, "I guess I'll look after Bumblebee, Soundwave, and Shockwave."

Massacre said, "I don't want any robots, so I'll just help out the humans to find their place or something."

Jumpy shrugged, "Then I'll look after the rest: Ratchet, Lugnut, and Lockdown."

"Hey!" Sari snapped, "You can't just take my friends… and enemies, like that!"

"It's just temporary," Fyromaniac assured her, "it's just until we can find a way for you guys to go back to your own time."

Sari glared at us, but saw the sense in it and shut up.

There was a minute of silence. No-one knew what to do next. Then I asked, "How are we going to get them to our places?"

Jumpy responded slowly, "Well… I have to practice my driving…"

"Aren't you supposed to only drive with an adult?" Skullzy reminded.

"Yeah," I put in, "but we got like, seventeen adults, fifteen of which are thousands of years old."

oOo

Jumpy's car was a van, which was very lucky for us. We all crammed in and Jumpy started the van.

"Shouldn't I drive?" Captain Fanzone questioned, slightly nervous.

"No," I snorted, "Jumpy needs her practice and you just came from fifty years in the future, remember? The roads have changed in that amount of time."

Jumpy backed out of the driveway and drove a little too fast and jerkily down the road, headed to my house first which was closest. It was a fun ride, everyone jerking forward violently at every red light as Jumpy slammed the breaks on too hard, getting crushed up against the doors as she turned the corners too quickly and being thrown back as she accelerated at green lights suddenly. Thank God for seatbelts.

She pulled up in front of my house, much to everyone's relief and my disappointment that I had to get out so soon. I gingerly lifted the bag in which I had put my 'Con charges and slung it over my back. I waved goodbye and headed inside, unlocking the door with the house key I had in my pocket.

No-one was home, which was nice. I told Mum that I got home on my own as we finished early, so she didn't worry.

I locked myself in my room and opened the bag and sat down. The 'Cons felt quite at home straight away with all the black and emo stuff.

"This place is nice enough," Starscream commented, but I could tell from his optics that he liked it more than he said, "It'll do for now."

"Zis place needs more Decepticon symbols," Blitswing's cold face suggested, "Zen it'll be more appropriate for us to stay in."

I crossed my arms, but a small smile still tugged at the corner of my lips, "Hey, I like my room. I'm not changing any of it for the sake of you guys. This isn't your base you know."

"No, if we're staying here and the War is still going on, then it is technically our base." Megatron contradicted.

I chuckled at that, "I don't think you guys will be able to fight very much until you get back, freedom fighter."

Everyone seemed to react to that one, like they weren't expecting it.

Just to get a better reaction, I cheered, "Yeah! Go Megatron and the Decepticons!" I began clapping my hands, "Congratulations to you brave mechs for fighting for freedom and justice and all the rest of it. On a completely different note, I'm a TF guru, but I want to learn as much as I can about you all, so start talking."

There was a pause until I suggested, "You know, like where you came and stuff like that."

That got them started. They talked and I listened for hours on end, until night came and I got too tired to stay awake anymore.

I yawned and climbed into bed. I looked down at the 'Cons and said, "Hey, where are you guys gonna recharge tonight?"

They shrugged helplessly.

I gazed at my bed. It was slightly larger than normal, even though I was tall for my age. Seriously, half the time when I met someone new, they thought I was eighteen. An idea came to me, an awkward one considering that they were all male. I began with embarrassment, "Well… you could come to bed with me… it's big enough for all of you. We can sort out where you recharge tomorrow night." Damnit, that sounded so bad.

They looked at each other and muttered stuff I couldn't hear. Then one at a time, they each climbed on and found a spot to rest. I lay on my side and curled up slightly. Unlike the others, Starscream must've been feeling a bit braver than usual or something, as he was hesitantly making his way over to my pillow.

I understood what he wanted and gently pushed him closer to me. The only reason I wasn't burned was because I was wearing gloves and a light long-sleeved top. I had taken safety measures seeing as I was looking after a pink guy. He seemed relieved that he didn't have to say anything and embarrass himself or that I rejected him.

"Just so you know, this means nothing," he grumbled.

"Of course not," I smirked.

"Hey, you're warm," he realised out loud and snuggled closer to my chest, luckily not touching my skin. He looked up at me and repeated, "Like I said, this means nothing."

I gently wrapped my arms around his small form almost protectively and mocked, "Just so you know, this means nothing."

He muttered something but didn't pull away, apparently enjoying the extra warmth.

I closed my eyes and tried to drift off to sleep, which sadly always took at least a few hours, but opened them again when I felt something against me.

Turned out that the rest of the 'Cons were brave too. Blitzwing was resting on my thigh, his limbs going every which way and Megatron was leaning against my gut, curled in a ball himself.

I smiled to myself. They looked so cute when they recharged. I closed my eyes again and sleep came much faster that night. I had a nightmare of a memory.

_I was playing marco polo with some friends. I was in, so I was blind folded and trying to find them by voice alone. It was year 2._

_I heard giggling and approaching footsteps. A cold shiver ran down my spine. I turned to the source of the sounds._

_Liquid nitrogen, acid, lava, whatever, something like that spilled over me. At least half of me. My ear-splitting scream echoed around the playground. I fell to the ground, writhing is agony. The breeze was soft, but the air brushing my exposed flesh caused pain beyond anything I had ever known._

_I couldn't take it._

_oOo_

_It was black. No temperature, no texture, nothing. The only think for certain was that it was black. I knew this place, it was quite familiar._

'Huh? Where am I?'_ a guy's voice, an adult, deep baritone._

What? Who are you?

'Uhh... I'll tell you if you tell me.'

Acheron.

'How about Ash?'

Ok then, now who are you?

'You can call me Chatterbox.'

So you talk a lot?

'Yeah. You?'

Not to myself. Seriously, what are you doing here?

'No idea. Where's 'here' anyway?'

A coma.

'Why?'

Some jerk just dumped pink something, maybe paint, all over me.

'... Huh?'

Pinkitus. Ever heard of it?

'Yeah, extremely rare skin condition, right?'

Bingo. Finally, someone who knows what it is.

'Isn't there only one person in the world who has it?'

Yours truly.

'Ouch.'

Yeah, pretty much.

'... this place is boring, this... coma. Isn't this stasis lock?'

What's stasis lock?

'When you black out for a long time.'

Exactly the same as a coma.

_I somehow felt the voice— Chatterbox search for something, look me over like a doctor looking at a patient for diseases._

_Then he showed me a memory that couldn't possibly be my own._

There were two beings, robots far beyond Earth's capabilities. One was slim and black, a female, the other was tall and white, a male. The white one was tearing the black one's chest apart, splitting it down the middle and sliding the two parts aside. The black one's screams sounded completely unearthly.

Inside was a pristine black orb, glowing strongly with shear blackness, pulsing like a heart. The white one smiled, saying, "Ah, your spark will be perfect. It's large with enough love for many, it's tender and will break easily, and it's strong at the same time, able to withstand much physical damage, but not emotional damage."

The white reached forward, piercing the black orb with its clawed fingers. The pain was so great in the black that it was almost visible. Its screams could've shattered the moon, if it were glass. The orb twisted and writhed, almost as if it were silently screaming as well, and after a few impossibly long moments, the orb stopped moving. It faded to ash grey and remained utterly silent and still as a statue. The screams fell silent and the black one fell still.

It was dead.

oOo

When I woke up, I had nightmares about it for weeks after. Chatterbox had blackmailed me to never tell anyone about it or else something like that would happen to me. I had waking and sleeping nightmares all the time for months after. Chatterbox got worse and worse, but I forced myself to live with it.

I had that nightmare often.


	7. Burns and Samedi

Chapter 6 – burns and Samedi

PPR-KUT

By Linkin Park/Cheapshot & Jubacca ft. Rasco & Planet Asia (remixed by Armageddon Rider)

_Here we go again,  
__With the pain I feel,  
__I find myself in places with names but not faces.  
__Hundred degrees, my soul,  
__Now it feels like my backs against__ the wall,  
__I'm taking the fall,  
__Nobody's responding at all._

**Continuing with the flashback**

I woke up slowly in the middle of the night to something moving against my chest. There were odd weights on certain parts of my body. I opened my eyes and saw the 'Cons resting on my body and remembered yesterday. I didn't realize my gloves had come off during the night.

Starscream shifted again, as if he were restless.

"What's up?" I whispered to him.

"It's cold now," he whined softly, "I want more warmth." He climbed under the covers, but that wasn't enough. He seemed to think that the source of my body heat would be warmer than my clothes. He went exploring, curiosity and hunger for warmth alone driving him. He felt my neck, his arms were black so it didn't hurt me, but wanted as warm as he could get.

He lifted up m collar and crawled inside my shirt. I clamped a hand over my mouth to stifle my scream of agony and started shaking violently.

"What's goin' on?" Megatron mumbled sleepily.

"Armageddon, what's wrong?" Starscream asked.

I reached in and pulled him out, throwing him across the room as a reaction to the pain of touching him.

"What was that for?" he demanded. He sat up and must've seen me crying silently and shaking, then asked, "Why are you shaking? Why is your face wet?"

I couldn't talk. He had severely burned my collar bone, chest, the base of my neck and my right hand. It looked like second and third degree burns. Everywhere he had touched me was red, raw skin, the dead stuff peeling off, with some parts black. I kept one hand over my mouth so I wouldn't scream.

I reached for my mobile and rang Samedi Girl.

"_Hey Armageddon," _she greeted, "_couldn't get to sleep, like me?"_

I was silent for a moment until I forced myself to talk in between sobs, "Burned... real bad... ambulance..."

It had taken tonnes of willpower and strength to keep myself conscious. The phone slipped from my hand. Everything turned black and silent before it hit the ground.

There was no feeling, no sight, nothing. That was how it was and how it would always be.

"_Still nothing?"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_Any life? Hope? Anything at all?"_

"_Nope. We're having a contest to hang in there the longest, and I can get _VEEEERY_ competitive, even though I hope she wins."_

There are things. Glances of something else, blurs of colour and sounds that vanish as soon as they are glimpsed.

"_It's been two weeks now."_

"_I know that. And I'm going to wait until she wakes up."_

"_It's a waste."_

"_Are you asking me to give up?"_

"_No, just asking you to be realistic."_

"_I am. She is strong enough to make it."_

The things are getting steadily stronger, sharper, and staying longer.

"_Don't give up, everyone's playing that game, and we're all hoping you win."_

"_... You're weird. She can't she you anyway."_

"_What makes you think that? People hear stuff when they're in comas all the time."_

"_And you know that from where?"_

"_... TV... but that doesn't matter. What matters is that she wakes up. Wake up, Armageddon, please."_

Armageddon. What is that from? Wait... that's a name, one that identifies me. Whatever a 'me' is.

"_I never told you what a great friend you are. Damnit, I should have said it earlier! You're more than a best friend, you're like a sister, you're someone I can trust more than anyone else. You don't know what that means to me."_

There is something calling. Something is trying to pull me through to wherever the voices and things are coming from. I reach out, but fall just short. Something tells me to just give up, something is beckoning me to something easy. I wonder if I should just give up.

'_You cannot give up.'_

Says who? I can give up any time I want.

'_No, not you. No-one can. They need you. __**I **__need you.'_

Chatterbox? How could you need me? You're a voice.

'_I am more than what you think I am. Much more. You'll see what I mean soon enough. For now, they need you more than I.'_

...You never make any sense.

'_Duh. I'm part of you.'_

Shut up, asshole.

I reach out across the gap again. I make it.

"Skullzy! Come quick! She's awake!"

The voices hurt my ears. And yet there is a burst of joy to hear them. There is feeling, clear sounds and light behind the blinds of darkness. I open my eyes and close them again right away – the light is blinding. Someone's hand is enclosed around my own and I remember the voice as Grim's.

"'Geddon? Can you hear me? Are you awake?"

"Yeah," I reply, "I'm awake."

oOo

It took a long time for me to fully wake up. Doctors were coming in and out all the time. There were at least one friend or family member by my bed at all times. When I finally came to it was Fyromaniac.

"Yellow," I greeted, opening my eyes and forcing myself to take in the pure white of the hospital.

There were flowers by my bedside table, as well as our charges, who actually _weren't _fighting.

"Hey," she smiled, "How do you feel?"

"I'm fine. Is it ok to sit up?" I noticed there was something tight on my torso and whole right arm, but not my left, like some of my skin had shrunk, "What's the tight thing on me?"

I lived in permanent pain, which was why I said I felt fine. Anyone else would say they hurt. People have trouble believing my disease, so little kids tend to experiment a lot. At least three times a year, varying in seriousness.

No-one has ever learned from my pain.

They think that it's fake somehow.

"Kevlar body suit. And yeah, you can sit up. You know what they are, right?"

"Yep. Great inventions," she hurried to my side as I struggled to sit up.

I looked over to the charges, "Who's been looking after the 'Cons?"

"Whoever's been in here," she answered, "the first night, Grim tried to take them home, but they wouldn't move. Those guys are kinda like dogs – they just stay with you when you get hurt."

I smiled at them gratefully. Megatron looked away, Random Blitzwing beamed at me and Starscream returned the smile slyly. It was nice to know people like that. They were rare and precious. But why did they do it?

"So... what happened after I called Grim?" I asked, turning back to Fyro.

"She thinks you passed out at that point." She explained, "There was a noise as the phone hit the ground and you weren't responding. She got over to your place as fast as she could, and the ambo was already there, loading you up. She went with them and called all of us. We went there ASAP and sat in the waiting room until you were out of the burns centre and into the ward and we could see you. Then we just waited."

I nodded, "How long was I out?"

"Just over three weeks."

I was shocked. Three weeks... that's a new record.

Then I grinned, "I won the contest."

She raised an eyebrow, "You could hear everything?"

"Nah, just a few things."

"Grim and Starscream will be happy about that. Starzy was about to tear the doctors' eyes out if they told Grim one more time there was no point in talking to you for hours."

"Hours?"

"Yeah, hours and hours. The both of them would just talk till they were blue in the face. It was like they thought they could bring you back with determination alone. I guess it worked."

"So why are you here in the first place?" Starscream cut in smoothly, "What did I do?"

I sighed. I hated disusing this topic; it always made me feel so weak. "I have an intense fear of the colour pink because it can kill me."

"Zat doesn't make sense," Blitzwing disagreed, "pink is only a colour."

I nodded, "Yeah, it is for everyone else. I'm different. If I touch pink directly it burns me." I held up my left hand, which had my first scar. "I got this when I was two. Most of my skin is messed up because of repeated attacks over the years. I learned about it the hard way. Dr McGrath, who's a really nice guy, discovered that I have a new skin disease which he called Pinkitus. There is no possible cure, as time was supposed to heal it but it can't. I can't stand pink."

I studied my right hand. It was still healing. The skin was still raw, but it wasn't scarring, which was a relief.

"Do all humans have this... condition?" Megatron asked.

I shook my head, "No. Like I said, I'm different."

"Freak," Megatron said bluntly.

'_I agree with him totally.'_

_You're both dickheads._

"Oh, _thanks _guys," I rolled my eyes, my voice dripping with sarcasm, "I'm just _so _glad to have _fantastic _guys like you hanging around. I mean, I must be the luckiest person on Earth!"

"Get over it, organic," he snarled, "Primus, you humans are so weak."

I picked him up in one hand and began to crush him, slowly and painfully, shooting one hell of a death glare at him.

"Get over it, _Meggzy_," I snarled right back, "I'm your only chance of getting back to your own time. The others won't take you. They already have their charges, and they must be having enough trouble already. So you better **zip it** or I'll just have to rip your head off."

He glared back at me, but he knew I was for real. He didn't reply, so I put him back down on the bedside table.

Random Blitzwing snickered, "Don't mess with ze dumb stubbies, _Meggzy_."

Megatron whacked Blitz over the head, obviously pissed off.

"Hey!" I barked, freezing everyone, "No fighting! Far out, how do you guys live with each other?"

"We don't," Starscream responded, "or at least, _I _don't live with Meggzy. And boy am I glad."

Megatron raised his fist, about to bash Starscream, but I growled like an animal and he got the message.

"Far out," Fyro muttered, "is one of you _not _pissed off with everything in sight?"

"Zat's Meggzy und Starscream for joo," Cold Blitzwing shook his head, "zey are always fighting. Always."

We nodded, "Not wrong."

oOo

I was in the hospital for two weeks before they let me out. My friends and I had arranged for us to have a meeting in the form of a sleepover, at Grim's place. I had brought gloves and light long sleeve shirts as safety measures. I made sure that this pair wasn't old and big like the other ones.

I got dropped off by Mum. I brought in my bag and she came in to say hi to Grim's aunt. Her parents are both dead, so Emoth DJ only has her aunt to look after her, and vice versa. All five of the others were already there.

"Are you ok?" Jumpy asked.

"Yeah, I'm doing alright," I replied, dumping my stuff in the room we would all be sleeping in, Grim's room.

My charges climbed out of the bag, checking out their new surroundings. I noticed that Jazz was perched on Grim's shoulder and Bumblebee on Skullzy's.

"How are you guys going with your charges?" I asked them all, "Starscream and Meggzy keep on fighting, but Blitzwing is better. Although he does like to bash his head into walls and laugh like a loon."

"Sound like anyone we know?" Massacre smirked at me, "the humans are alright. I got them to stay put at my place. It's lucky my parents are on holiday up in Queensland. I had to take the Key off Sari because she kept on stuffing up stuff. I had to bring them here to make sure they didn't run off or something."

"It's all good with my charges," Provider of Samedi reported, "Jazz is cool, I had to take Magnus' hammer 'cuz he thinks he's all high and mighty with it, and Sentinel is a son of a bitch." She grinned evilly down at said 'Bot, "Nothing a little blackmail can't fix." He flinched under her gaze. Whatever she did to him, he deserved it.

Skullzy spoke up, "Bumblebee is even more hyper than I am."

We all gasped, our eyes going wide. Someone being more hyper than Skullzy is as impossible as someone being more retarded than me, or someone being more in love with Edward Cullen than Grim, or a normal-sized ant being bigger than Unicron (and his alt form is a fragging _planet_!!!)

'_That's just scary.'_

_I agree all the way._

'_That's even scarier.'_

She nodded, "Yeah, I know. Soundwave is downloading and playing more songs than you could poke a stick at, and his voice is more boring than anything I've ever heard, and Shockwave is always just sitting and thinking. When I ask him what it's about, he goes on about logical and illogical stuff and looses me after five seconds into his rant."

Fyromaniac said, "Prowl keeps on wondering off. Whenever he does I freak out in case someone finds him or something. Every time I find him, he's always outside, either checking out nature or meditating. After a while, I just stopped worrying. Bulkhead is pretty clumsy and keeps on knocking stuff over by accident, but he's still a nice guy. Optimus refuses to chill out, as he's convinced that the 'Cons will attack or something, even though I've told him again and again that they won't."

Jumpy heaved a sigh, "Lugnut rants and raves about how 'glorious' Megatron is all the time. He's head-over-heels for the guy. I've sticky-taped his mouth shut _fourteen times this morning. _Ratchet likes to find faults in every little thing and has a massive grudge against Lockdown, but he won't tell me what. And Lockdown... he's fucking horny for Hatchet and Nutcase. It's been a really scary couple of weeks."

I shuddered at the thought, considering Lockdown's age and history. You don't want to know. "We really need to get these guys back—"

I got cut off by Megatron and Starscream shouting and trying to kill each other. I sighed and picked Starscream up and placed him on my shoulder, as he had been about to get blasted by Meggzy.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Grim asked.

"Yeah," I replied, "I've had to do it a few times lately. Starcream knows the drill: don't let any pink touch my skin and it'll all be fine."

He had begun to entertain himself by playing with my hair. He seemed to be fascinated by it, especially the smell and texture of it, for some odd reason. He busied himself with styling tiny braids in my hair. He did that a lot.

"How cute," Fyromaniac teased.

I didn't pay attention to the comment and suggested, "Come on, let's go for a walk. It would probably be best if we didn't hang around here all day with our charges or Grimmy's aunt might notice and investigate."

The others nodded. Grim put Jazz down and searched for her aunt to say we were going or a walk and would be back in time for dinner. The rest of us got out smallish bags and loaded up our charges, money, alcohol, and a dangerous amount of Samedi.

When Grim came back we set off on our walk, dragging the other humans along with us. We were going into town. The closest mall was only an hour away. Prowl was the first to wriggle his way out of Fyromaniac's bag. He perched on her shoulder, gazing around with awe at the nature around him. Grim lived on the outskirts of town, so there was plenty of fauna and flora for him to gawk at.

The others soon made their way out of the bags as well. The Seekers flew just ahead, showing off their stuff, while the Groundlings drove on the road, avoiding cars and our feet. Only Prowl, Starscream and Jazz stayed with us, balancing on their respective guardians' shoulders.

Starscream kept on playing with my hair, but I didn't mind. It was actually quite nice. He was good too, each braid was neat and done with care. He didn't even need a band at the end to keep them together.

We drank the alcohol (against Fanzone's advice) and Samedi on our way there, so we were drunk _and _high at the same time. It was truly an odd sensation. Everyone else was more high than drunk, so they were yelling and running and going crazy. It was incredibly hard to get me high, so the only effect I had was feeling more energized. That or I was more drunk than high.

Just before we got into town, we rounded up the TFs and put them back in our bags, much to their disappointment. By then, Starscream had braided all of my hair, and it looked quite nice as (some of) the others told me. The TFs unzipped the bags a little and peeked out.

Bumblebee whined so much that Skullzy had to let him out so he would shut up. The condition was that he had to stay in his alt form and NOT talk. Of course, he did, he chatted about and at everything he saw.

Then Blitzwing demanded to be let out. I let him out and said that he had to stay in jet form and not kill anyone, or I would kill him. He actually obeyed.

Some random came up and asked, "Hey, is that little yellow car yours?"

"Yeah," I said, "what about it?"

"It keeps on talking," the random replied, "what is it?"

"It's the coolest remote control car ever," I lied, crossing my arms over my chest proudly, "it's so remote controlled, you don't need a remote control." I pointed out my sunnies, "it has a mini camera onboard, so you can control it with these. It's a brand new thing, and we're out here testing it."

"Really?" the random seemed interested, "which company made it?"

I fibbed, "You've never heard of it; they're new. Bye, bye." With that, I walked off, my friends and Sari following me, and the adults a little further behind us.

'_You're quite good at lying, Army.'_

_Why, thank you. _

"That was pretty smooth," Massacre complimented, "how'd you come up with that?"

"No idea," I answered. I seriously had no idea.

We continued walking/skipping/jumping/running/hopping/staggering to the mall. Just outside, Samedi Girl told the non-teenagers, in Blurr style, "You Samedi guys just Samedi wonder around, Samedi. Meet back here Samedi in a Samedi hour's Samedi time of the Samedi Samedi-ness and wait Samedi for us Samedi. Have Samedi fun." Yeah, when she gets high off Samedi, practically every third word is Samedi. Samedi!

They nodded slowly, walking away from us. We bounced inside, singing (yelling) the Blood Song and clapping our hands for the beat.

"_Well they encourage your complete co-operation,  
__Send you roses when they think you need to smile.  
__Do, do.  
__I can't control myself because I don't know how,  
__And they love me for it, honestly,  
__I'll be here for a while.  
_

_So give 'em  
__Blood, blood,  
__Gallons of the stuff.  
__Give 'em all that they can drink and it will never be enough.  
__So give 'em  
__Blood, blood, bloooooood  
__Grab a glass because there's gonna be a flood.  
__Do, do."_

Three teenagers, who looked emo and cool, joined in. They must've been My Chemical Romance fans as well.

"_A celebrated man amongst the gurney,  
__They can fix me proper with a bit of luck.  
__Do, do.  
__The doctors and the nurses they adore me so,  
__But it's really quite alarming  
_'_Cuz I'm such an awful fuuuuuuuuuck._

_I... gave... you  
__Blood, blood,  
__Gallons of the stuff.  
__I gave you all that you could drink and it has never been enough.  
__I gave you  
__Blood, blood, bloooooooooooooooood  
__I'm that kind of human wreckage that you love.  
__Do, do."_

We laughed at the random outburst of song. The MCR fans said that it was fun.

"Do you guys know the Psycho Song?" Skullzy asked.

They shook their heads.

"It's like the Vegemite Song, but a few words have been changed," I explained, "I also came up with it. Go me. Wanna learn it?"

"Yeah," they nodded.

We taught them how it went and they learned very quickly. When we were ready, we sang, and people walking past kept their distance, thinking we were insane. A few thought it was hilarious and started laughing their heads off.

"_We're hyper little psychopaths,  
__As high as high can be!  
__We all enjoy our blood and gore,  
__For breakfast, lunch and tea!  
__We love our vi-o-lence,  
__We all adore the horrid deaths,  
__We put a scar on every cheeeeeeeck!"_

We laughed when we finished. One of the three MCR fans said, "Hey guys, we should probably be going; we don't want to be late."

The other two nodded. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

We got some more sugar and began to play a game of dare. Chatterbox's idea, not mine. The first one was for me to stand in Supré for ten minutes or buy something pink and wear it, or else they would kill my charges.

**End flashback**

Finally we're really getting somewhere. A spot slow, I know dear readers, but we're going to Detroit very soon! Please reveiw, 'cuz that button has your name on it.


	8. The event on Altair Hailstroms blog spot

Chapter 7 – the event on Altair Hailstrom's blog post

Black and Gold  
By Sam Sparrow

_And all around these golden beacons,  
__I see nothing but black._

**Armageddon's POV**

"So I forced myself to stand in Supré for ten minutes," I explained.

'_Have we learnt from that lesson, Army?'_

Skullzy laughed, "Yeah, and when she came out, she was pissed. She ran right up to the next level, strangled me and demanded to know where Starscream was. It was as if she _knew _he was missing, even though we didn't have a clue."

"We split up and searched the place," Ya Mum Girl recounted, "When we couldn't find him, we came back to where we were watching Armageddon in all her terror. Being part Cybertronian, she was able to track Starscream."

"She just took off, didn't she?" Jumpy asked, getting nods from all of us, "she tore through the place and came right here. We followed her, taking our bags."

"And that's everything," Massacre finished, "everything from that day at Skullzy's to right now."

"Whoa," was the first thing Rachael said, "You guys have been through a lot in the past few weeks. Can I see the others?"

We unzipped the bags slightly so she could see the TFs inside. A look of utter awe crossed her face. She knew that absolutely everything we had said was true, even though seeing Starscream was enough proof.

I put Starscream back in my bag, we zipped them up and stood up. I took out my black flip phone from my pocket and said, "I'm not all that great with faces. We'll come back next Saturday and update you, alright? Is it cool if I take your photo so I remember you, Rachael?" I secretly crossed my fingers.

She nodded.

My phone had been designed and built by Jumpy, who was amazing with machines. Give her five undisturbed minutes with any gadget and she'll be able to take it apart and put it back together with her eyes closed. Being an assassin, I needed a weapon I could always carry with me. I went to the photo options and selected 'memory wipe', setting it to 'last hour', which was roughly how long we had been talking to her.

"Ok, smile," I said to Rachael, while briefly casting a look at my friends, who turned away and screwed their eyes shut when I said, "Say cheese." It was a warning.

"Cheese," Rachael said, not having enough time to react to my friends.

I pushed the button and there was a bright flash and she got a blank look on her face. I didn't have to close my eyes as I had sunnies.

We picked up our bags and walked away before the effect of the flash wore off. I put my phone back in my pocket and none of us looked back.

We stayed silent so as to not attract attention until we got out of Myers. Then when we were far away enough we chuckled quietly and high fived each other. Spilling the beans and then wiping peoples' memories never got old.

We bought some food and drinks and headed back out the front. Fanzone, Sumdac and Sari were already waiting there, looking impatient.

"What the hell were you doing?" Fanzone demanded.

"We ran into someone," Fyromaniac answered coolly.

"Did you check out the place?" Massacre asked.

They nodded.

"This place is pretty cool," Sari complimented our time, "but it's really different to Detroit, my time."

I grinned, "No kidding. There aren't any robots running around and this is the Bush Capital."

"Huh?" Sari obviously didn't know what that meant.

"The term 'Bush Capital' refers to Canberra because it has so many trees," Fyromaniac explain, being the smarty she is, "if you were flying over Canberra in a plane, you would see more gum trees than buildings."

We began to walk back to Grim's place. I offered them some of my chips and Coke, "Want some?" they nodded and dug in, so I just gave it all to them.

When we got further out, we let the TFs out again. This time none of them stayed with us and all went ahead. Prowl kept on spacing out and almost getting lost, so Fyromaniac had to put him on her shoulder so he didn't.

We didn't get high this time, as having more than one can of Samedi daily was deadly. Having any Samedi at all could be bad for you. We walked most of the way in silence, just watching the TFs. For a little while we talked to the Detroit people about their experience at the mall. They quite liked it there, but there wasn't really much to talk about. Sumdac asked us what we had done, and we said that we _could _tell him, but then we would have to kill him.

We almost got to Sparkle's place when we had to round up the TFs and put them back in the bags. We got there and went up to Fluffy's room and just chilled. Then we walked around her 10 acre backyard, talking, acting crazy and yelling random stuff like, "I got a jar of dirt! I got a jar of dirt! And guess what's inside it!" and "The baby of the future is a great alternative for basket balls!" and "I burn roads in the middle of rainstorms!"

We were generally random. Blitzwing got it and joined in effortlessly. Most of the others either pretended they didn't know us or just ignored it. Shockwave wouldn't stop giving us WTF looks, even though he didn't have a face. You'll be amazed what expressions someone with skill can do with just one optic. Guy's got talent.

When the sun went down, we had dinner and continued checking out her backyard. Slowly, it got so dark that our only light was the moon and stars. For a while we just sat on a cluster of rocks in utter silence, staring up at the night sky through the gum trees. Somehow even Bumblebee managed to stay put and shut up.

Out here, there was very little light from the city and we could easily see the golden stars. The sky was crystal clear as there wasn't a cloud in sight. I think that the TFs were so quiet because they hadn't seen the stars quite like this, framed by trees so dark that the sky looked strangely bright.

Who would've thought that ancient history could be so beautiful?

As we slept that night, no-one noticed the moonlight flood the room, turning everything silver for a moment, before the moon continued its orbit and everything returned to normal.

oOo

We got ready the next morning, getting changed, eat, etc. After breakfast, we all went back to Grim's room to pack up. We were all present in the room, as the TFs had to stay there. Then something extremely weird happened.

The entire room shone in a way that made it look like it was made of silver.

We were freaked, but no-one moved or made a sound, mostly because we were too scared to. The whole place exploded into blinding white light and I felt myself falling.


	9. Well, this is new

Chapter 8 – well… this is new

Put Your Hands Up For Detroit

By Fredde Le Grand

_Put your hand up for Detroit,  
__I love this city._

**Armageddon's POV**

I screamed. Well, I might've screamed, but it definitely didn't come out. I felt like there was a tight band around my neck and something blocking my throat. I couldn't even chock or cough, as it seemed like my windpipe had just been ripped out of my throat and there was nothing to even breathe through.

My body was being ripped apart, the very fibres fraying and the cells fleeing from each other. I was being sucked down as if there was a gigantic vacuum below me.

There was no stopping it, no escape.

Then the cells started scrambling back together, the fibres repairing themselves, as if they were terrifyed and huddling together for protection, but I still couldn't breathe. My lungs were on fire! But I was unable to black out.

Abruptly, the intense light vanished and I was sent tumbling onto something hard, feeling my skin tear in places, like my hands and knees. I lay there, taking in big gulps of air, my eyes screwed shut. I didn't want to move for a while, nor were my limbs obeying me.

After a minute, I forced my eyes to open and looked around. I was in the middle of a big city, lying on the middle of an empty road, my friends still on the ground beside me, and the TFs just getting up, back to their normal size. There weren't as many trees and the air wasn't nearly as fresh. This city was definitely not Canberra.

We were in Detroit.

"What year is it?" I gasped, getting to my feet.

"2058," Bulkhead replied.

'_Yes! Now the show begins!'_

_What are you going on about, Chatterbox?_

'_Let's just say that very soon, you're gonna meet me.'_

_... And they say _I'm _crazy._

"Holy ca-shizzle," Fyromaniac muttered, as she and all my friends got up.

The 'Cons stood there, staring down the 'Bots, and they stared right back. It was quiet for a while, before the 'Bots transformed and waited for us to hop on, and drove back to their base.

It was pretty cool, I mean, it was a huge abandoned factory. That alone is really cool. That and the fact that the 'Bots had fixed it up pretty nicely made it even cooler.

We chilled there for a while, while mostly Bumblebee and Sari outlined some of the stuff that had been happening. It was an interesting conversation, as I knew exactly what they were talking about. Being the TF Guru ROCKS!

After a while, we decided that since we were 50 years ahead of our original time, we should walk around town and check the place out. We convinced Sari to come along, seeing as this was her city, and she dragged Bumblebee along, who dragged Bulkhead along, and pretty soon all the 'Bots were tagging along.

Damn, we were popular.

While we were just walking around, being stalked by the local celebs, who were stalked by fans, who were stalked by the paparazzi, who were stalked by the press, who were stalked by everyone we passed, who were stalked by coppers, who were stalked by a parade band, who were stalked by a bunch of randoms, who were stalked by a whole parade, who were stalked by more coppers, who were stalked by the military, who were stalked by Green Peace people protesting against fossil fuels, who were stalked by (retro) hippies, who were stalked by even more coppers who were stalked by more people we passed, who were stalked by us because the line was so damn long that we didn't even know were leading it, so we stalked them to see what was going on, I pulled out my phone and showed it to Sari. She thought it was pretty cool. I started to play a few songs from our time, mostly dance ones, Three Days Grace and Linkin Park. When I put on 'Sexyback' by Justin Timberlake and Timberland, Bumblebee was soon dancing along. Optimus and Ratchet didn't seem to get it, but Prowl, Bulkhead, Sari, and me, all our stalkers and my friends sure did.

Like I said, we're popular.

And we're back in black, baby!

We were all doing random little dance moves, Bulkhead's normally involving all of us falling over with the ground shaking so much. Prowl and Fyromaniac (who was shy when it came to being a little crazy. Seriously, she wouldn't do anything when we had parties) didn't dance much, but I could hear them humming along with the song.

I played my best dance songs for several more minutes, getting weird looks from most of the people we passed. Some of them joined in and we laughed with them and exaggerated fake crying when they continued on their way. I even pretended to stab myself with an invisible blade and die in the middle of the street. I was good at playing dead.

Ratchet really didn't get it. He kept on whining about us 'being stupid' and for us to 'turn that fragging racket down'. We told him that he could either shut up or fuck off. He decided to shut up.

Eventually I stopped dead on the sidewalk, my mouth hanging open slightly, my eyes wide and my breath caught in my throat.

_Hhhhooooot..._

'_For once, organic, I agree with you. That thing is _SEXY FINE!!!'

I flinched, _hey, not so loud, ok?_

'_Whatever.'_

Jumpy whacked me on the back to get me breathing again. I coughed a bit but then went back to staring at what I had seen.

They followed my gaze and saw, parked on a corner, one of the sexiest cars I had seen in a long time; an SC/8T Ultimate. But this one was black, with blood red headlights and dark tinted windows. I think I could faintly see white leather seats inside.

"Is there some sort of car show around here?" I asked Sari, "Like Summernats or something?"

She nodded, "Yeah, but I have no idea what 'Summernats' is. Every year, there's this huge car show just outside Detroit. Heaps of people, who are mad about cars, pimp up old ones, go to that show and flaunt their stuff. Sometimes they bring in old aircraft too, and pimp them up. They have some which they fly, and some which are just for display. The down side is that lots of young guys get drunk."

I smiled, "Yeah, that's just like Summernats, except we don't have the aircraft. That car up there is one of the hottest, fastest cars of 2008. It's a very cool car." I walked up to it, the whole gang following.

Ratchet leaned close to me and whispered something very surprising, "I don't say this very much, and never about things like this, but do you believe in love at first sight?"

"Oh yeah," I grinned, murmuring back, "I got that when I saw you guys for the first time. Even Bulkhead. Especially you, baby. But don't tell anyone." I smiled at him, and I swear I saw him blush.

"I won't," he promised, "I'm getting a case of that right now."

I gave him a thumbs up, "Good to know there's something on God's Earth, and the whole universe, that you _actually_ find attractive."

He glared at me. I smiled back sheepishly, my eyes shifting away from his optics. There was something on display in the optical store right next to us. I knew that from somewhere...

I looked closer at it, saying, "Oi, Hatchet, what's that?" I went inside the store and picked it up. It looked like a pair of sunnies connected to an earpiece.

"I have no idea," he shrugged.

I read something on the side of it, "Gizmo Glasses," I read out loud, suddenly recognizing it, "oh, I know these things! They're really rare. I remember repairing them for a friend, but I never got to see them in action." I walked outside the store, and strangely, the alarm didn't go off. Weird.

Fyromaniac looked over at me and asked, "What do you have there, Armageddon?"

"This thingy is a pair of Gizmo Glasses," I replied, pointing out the name on the side of the device, "See?"

"Cool," she commented.

'_Put them on! Put them on now!'_

I grinned, slipping the Gizmos on. Fyromaniac laughed and the others turned to look at me. I knew that I probably looked really stupid, so I struck a pose. My finger lingered too long and accidentally pressed a button on the side of the Gizmo.

All light and colour vanished and freezing cold enveloped me.

_Was this your intention?_

'_Completely.'_

_Well, damn._


	10. Blackout

Chapter 9 – blackout

Crawling

By Linkin Park

_Crawling in my skin,  
__These wounds, they will not heal,  
__Fear is how I fall,  
__Confusing what is real._

_There's something inside me that pull beneath the surface,  
__Consuming, confusing._

**Armageddon's POV**

I was in darkness. It was weird. Was I sleeping? I didn't think I was dead, as I kept on seeing snips of stuff, like dreams.

There was a creature, something huge, black and metal. It stood over me, looking down at me. It had freakishly bright red eyes, but they weren't the creature's eyes, it was like someone else was looking out through them.

Me.

There was a weird sound, but it was one I knew. All of a sudden, there was the Ultimate, right in front of me. It revved its engines, but they sounded unnatural, like some kind of Un-Earthly roar. Like some sort of... metallic dragon.

The headlights glared at me, and something about it made me run. I was scared. I didn't know why, but I knew that that creature, that car, would cause more terror and suffering than anything I had ever known before.

oOo

**Ratchet's POV**

When Armageddon collapsed, my hand shot out and caught her, without even thinking about it. I lowered her gently to the ground and her friends gathered around her, wondering out loud what had happened. I took off the Gizmos and didn't have a chance to even examine it.

The black car, the Ultimate, came to life. The engines roared loudly, causing all of us, and a few nearby humans, to jump back. There was no driver inside, which could only mean...

There was the familiar sound of transformation, then it began to change shape entirely. Before us stood a tall, slim, black femme, with optics like Pit fire and no insignia. What side was she on?

I was frozen. I could feel my spark pulsing faster at her untamed and pure aura. She was like something wild which could never be captured. I knew already that she would never be one to always obey orders if she didn't like it, I knew that here would always be at least some part of her which would be eternally free. You learn to see the signs when you're my age.

Optimus readied his axe and asked cautiously, "Who are you?"

She looked confused, "why am I freakishly tall? Why am I unconscious on the sidewalk?"

Our optics and eyes widened and I exclaimed, "Armageddon?!"

She looked me square in the optics and I had to fight back the blush building up as she smiled, some thought stirring in her CPU that reflected in her optics. Wait... what had I said just before?

"_I don't say this very much, and never about things like this, but do you believe in love at first sight?"_

"_Oh yeah," she grinned, murmuring back, "I got that when I saw you guys for the first time. Even Bulkhead. But don't tell anyone."_

"_I won't," I promised, "I'm getting a case of that right now."_

Oh, Primus. I had found that car very attractive, and now she was it! No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! I couldn't be falling for her! She was far too young and probably didn't even want me, anyway.

_Snap out of it, Ratchet, _I told myself firmly, _don't be stupid—_

My thoughts were interrupted when she spoke, "Yeah, it's me... kinda. That's my body over there, but now I'm over here." She looked down at her new, metallic body, "cool. I'm black. I always wanted to be black, you know."

Wow. She had an almost musical voice. I wonder what her singing voice was like...

"Anyone have any ideas how this happened?" Grim inquired, "_Apart_ from the obvious fact that the Gizmos did it," she added when Bumblebee opened his mouth.

We were silent. Optimus put his axe away. Armageddon shuttered her optics and went still as a statue.

"Armageddon?" I asked.

She opened her optics and looked into mine, "Yeah?"

I felt my air intakes hitch, "Are... are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm all good, just listening to music," she replied.

She opened a private comm. link and music flowed through.

"_This is my December,_

_This is my time of the year._

_This is my December,_

_This is all so clear._

"_Just wish that it didn't feel like there was something I missed_

_Just wish that it didn't feel like there was something I missed."_

I interrupted, "_Could you sing some?_"

She nodded slightly and continued. I swear my spark stopped.

"_This is my December,_

_This is my snow-covered home._

_This is my December,_

_This is me alone._

"_And I_

_Just wish that it didn't feel like there was something I missed_

_And I _

_Take back all the things I said to make you feel like that_

_And I_

_Just wish that it didn't feel like there was something I missed_

_And I _

_Take back all the things I said._

"_This is my December_

_These are my snow-covered trees._

_This is me pretending_

_This is all I need."_

She stopped singing. I felt like I could cry. It was a sad song, it was the story of someone suffering greatly, like so many people I had known and tried to help, some of which I had failed. That was the most beautiful singing I had ever heard in my entire, long life. I shuttered my optics and fought back tears. That combination made me just want to cry and cry and cry.

oOo

**Armageddon's POV**

I was still in that dark place, drifting through what seemed like memories. But these couldn't be memories, I didn't know anyone here, I had never seen any of them in my entire life, but they seemed to know me.

The black creature was killing humans. Hundreds died at its hands, or rather its sword and arm-mounted plasma cannons. It killed other creatures, giant robots I realized, obviously not of Earthly design.

As one of them talked to it and a pink and grey being, another black creature, I saw how it met a black and white robot. It had been flying, when the black and white one knocked it out of the sky. Glowing, purple blood had been spilled and darkness claimed the black thing. When it woke up, it had been healed and the other one was waiting beside the first.

Apparently I had been lost to them, but now they had found me.

oOo

**Grim Reaper's POV**

"So, what I'm saying is…we need someone to test it, so we can be sure it works properly and I'll know how to clone it." Ratchet stated. We were standing outside the Med Bay, talking about Ratchet's latest achievement in duplicating the Gizmo Glasses.

I looked around me, examining the nervous faces of my companions, one by one they slowly shook their heads and turned to look at me. Skullzy, Jumpy, Massacre, and Fyromaniac, even Ratchet was staring at me now. Turns out they were all scared.

Truth is I was scared too. I was nervous and scared and I'd feel very content at shaking my head too or bursting out crying. But I couldn't. I kept my calm expression. I will not look weak. I will stay strong. I am the leader here, I have to stay strong. I can't ever let them see my weaknesses, my fear, those must remain hidden. I have kept up this for a long time and I can't break now, I must always keep my feelings in check. No matter what.

I kept the calm, empty expression plastered on my face. Taking in a deep breath I confidently stepped forward and looked up into Ratchet's concerned optics.

"I volunteer."

"Grim…" I looked around and saw that Jumpy had spoken, a solemn look on her face. She walked up to me and hugged me.

"Hey, it's not like I'm dying here, I'll be fine. Don't worry." I had to keep them hoping.

"Come with me then." Ratchet said.

I walked behind him as we made our way away from the group and into the Med Bay, I looked over my shoulder at the solemn group and their concerned and scared expressions.

I walked in through the massive door and stood on the floor by his foot while he picked the device up off the table and passed it down to me.

"Here goes." I said calmly as I slid it on my head. He flashed a weak smile at me. "I just want you to do one thing from me first, okay?" he nodded. "If I don't come back, work on it, I don't want the same thing happening to them alright?" he nodded again and I reached up and pressed the button.

A sharp electrical shock surged through my whole body, of which I had no control over. I could feel every limb shaking uncontrollably. My mind felt detached from my body. There was a piercing noise in the background; it was strange and high pitched, like screaming. It was blurred out like I was trapped inside a bubble. Only then did I realise that it was my own screaming I was hearing.

The bubble was broken and I could hear my screaming loud and clear. I tried to stop it, I couldn't let my emotions escape like that, I'm only scaring them more! But I had no control over my body, it was like it wasn't my body any more, like I was telling a person standing next to me to move away using only my mind.

Even though I couldn't control my body I could still feel the pain. It was like burning hot electricity was melting over every atom in my existence. Branching from my fingers and toes and spreading rapidly inward, in towards my heart. The second I felt it reach my heart my body stop screaming and went limp, crumpling to the floor. And all my vision went black.

oOo

I opened my eyes slowly; well I guess they were optics now. I flexed my fingers to test that I was in my own body now; they responded quickly. I couldn't feel any pain, that was good. I sat up slowly and jumped to my feet. Everything felt so new, so real. Wondering how to control my new body I decided to try to get into my alt form. _Transform_.

I felt gears moving and clicking and my shape shifting as it turned into something else. I examined my shape and to the best of my knowledge I was some form of jet. I tried to tap into my form, and I found myself thrusting forward in an incredibly high speed take-off.

Only now did I notice my surroundings. I was in a military air base.

I was flying back to the base when something hit me, if I go back, then Ratchet will think the device worked perfectly and he'll duplicate them exactly the same. Which means all my friends will go through the same pain I did.

But, there is another alternative. I don't go back, they think I'm dead, Ratchet tries to improve the device, they don't go through the pain, I meet up with them when they've been transformed and tell them "hey guys, sorry I wasn't really dead after all". Simple.

Then something else hit me, more literal this time. Whatever it was crashed into my wing, shearing it clean off and sending me spiralling downwards. I looked around for my attacker and spotted a large, black and white mech. I transformed back while I was falling and watched the surprised expression on his face that he had shot a femme, but he wiped away the surprise quickly and masked it with something more intimidating. I looked around and saw my wing falling with me, though mangled and separated from my body.

The ground rushed up to meet me and I flipped onto my back and closed my optics to take the impact better. An enormous thud sounded and I dented the road like butter.

I opened my optics and the first thing I was looking at was the face of the mech, twirling a pair of nun chucks. Never underestimate the guy with the nun chucks.

"Waddaya doin' here 'Con?"

"I'm not a Deception, and I'm not an Autobot either." He looked at me confusedly.

"Sure ya not, and what would ya do if I don' off-line ya righ' now?" I thought about it for a moment, since I only just come to the realisation that I couldn't go back to the Autobot base.

"I…don't know, I guess I _was _going to go look for a friend that the 'Cons have captured, but I don't think I can do that with only one wing." He eyed me warily before subspacing his weapon and offering a hand to help me to my feet.

"Thank you." I said before examining the stump where my wing should be.

He sighed. "So ya sure ya ain't a 'Con?"

"Well actually, now that I think about it…" I rubbed my chin thoughtfully with my remaining hand. "NO."

"I should get ya to a medic, Ratchet will fix ya up, don' worry." He turned and started walking towards my mangled wing.

"NO!"

He stopped and turned around quickly, staring at me suspiciously. "Why not?"

"It's not like that, I promise. It's just I can't go back to the Autobot base."

"Why not?"

I sighed. "I wish I could tell you but…I just don't know."

"Dunno what? If ya can trust me?"

I sighed again. He took a few wary steps towards me until he was standing right in front of me. "Who _are_ ya?" when I remained silent he tried again. "Ya can trust me."

"Okay, I'll tell you everything if you tell me who _you_ are." He hesitated for a moment.

"My name is Jazz." My optics widened. How could I have not remembered him!? "And ya name?"

"Grim Reaper." His optics must've widened in turn behind his visor.

"T-Tha's impossible! How did this happen!?" he exclaimed

So I told him everything, starting from how Armageddon got transformed to when I realised I couldn't go back just a couple of minutes ago. He listened intently and asked a few questions every now and then but otherwise remained silent.

"So ya don' wanna go get fixed up and stop leakin' energon all over th' sidewalk cuz ya don' want 'em to realise ya survived thus endin' in 'em gettin' put through pain."

I hadn't realised I was bleeding until he mentioned it. I looked at my feet and saw the pool of energon I was standing in.

I started to feel dizzy and weak. My head rolled back and the ground came rushing up to meet me. Blackness started to claw at the edges of my sight, creeping slowly inwards. I never reached the ground, as strong, sturdy arms caught me before that happened.

The last thing I saw was piercing blue optics burning through that visor and straight into mine…

Then everything blacked out.

oOo

When I on-lined my optics all I saw was white. Then I figured out I was staring at the ceiling so I rolled over onto my side and recognised where I was instantly by the overly-cluttered work bench and the eerie white walls, and most of all, the strange device lying on the table that was the end of my human life.

Med Bay.

I shot up instantly, only to be pushed back down onto the recharge bed by a white hand.

"Don' worry, I didn' tell 'em anything, they don' know it's ya." My gaze followed the hand, to which was attached an arm, then a shoulder, a neck, and the calm face of my newest acquaintance (who was right now looking undeniably _sexy_) Jazz. "Ratchet was a little wary repairing someone he thought could be a Decepticon, but he agreed with the use of a little…persuasion." He blew on his clenched fist and grinned evilly.

"So…what am I going to do now?" as soon as I had asked I remembered my friend, the one that I must find, and if I don't I must avenge her, this is my sole mission now before I can think of anything else. I must find Armageddon. We simply cannot survive in this world without the TF guru.

I immediately jumped to my feet and was making my way to the door when once again I was stopped. Jazz was holding me back by the wrist with a look on his face that an angry mother would have when her grounded daughter was caught trying to sneak out with her boyfriend.

"Where do ya think ya goin'?" he demanded.

"To rescue my friend. In case you had forgotten but those were my plans since _before_ you tore my wing off... even though it's back now."

"Nah. Res'. Ya not fully healed yet."

"Sorry _MOM_, but I gotta jet."

He pulled me in by the wrist and with his other hand he jabbed a very tender spot behind my shoulder blade, which, apparently wasn't fully healed yet. My breath caught in my throat and I doubled over in pain, while I was going down I could swear I almost saw him wince.

"Res'." Was all he said.

I grimaced. "Why do YOU care so much anyway?"

He froze. "Cuz…"

I straightened up and turned around to face him, one optic ridge raised. "Because…?" I prompted.

He sighed, and in one quick movement he grabbed my face between his hands and the next thing I knew he was crushing his lips against mine. I was surprised, at first, and tensed up a bit, so he slowly moved away, when I, having no idea what I was doing, lunged forward and continued the kiss. It felt strange, but good, our lips moving together in perfect sync. I slid my arms around his neck, allowing no immediate escape, as he, in turn, moved his around my waist, pressing me against his body. I wanted this, I _needed_ this, the feeling of adrenaline that coursed through me was addictive, but the lust for more was almost incapacitating.

I 'accidentally' lost my footing, and slowly leaned backwards over the recharge bed, dragging his body along with mine. I was so right! The sensation was even better when you were horizontal. When my back hit the bed he slid his arms out from underneath me and placed them either side of my head, his knees either side of my hips.

He broke away from the kiss for a breather and we sat there, panting, staring into each other's optics (well, I was staring into his visor), if the optics were window to the soul, or spark or whatever, his must've had curtains of something, it was so hard to tell what he was thinking right now, even though his optics were showing slightly through his visor.

I'm sure whatever I was thinking was practically stamped onto my forehead. I wonder what he saw in my glowing red optics, did he see the nature of _my_ soul? I was usually pretty good at reading peoples' eyes/optics and expressions, but it was like I was looking into a brick wall. I took this opportunity to say something as we were both at a loss for words.

"Just so you know, I _love_ music."

oOo

I stayed in the Med Bay for the night, Jazz loyally by side the whole time. The next morning I left and flew out before the sun was even up, on the search for Armageddon.

I saw a trail of death and two thoughts came to me: Armageddon or the 'Cons. I followed it and it lead to the Elite Guard's ship. I landed and entered to investigate. I found more bodies. My optics widened and my spark stopped when I saw a white and black body among the lot.

I rushed over and knelt by Jazz, trying to keep the tears at bay. He was still alive, thank God, but there was a huge wound in his gut and energon was all over the place.

"Come on, Jazz, stand up, let's get you to Med Bay," I said softly, pulling him to his feet and supporting him, guiding him to the Med Bay.

I left him in the care of one of the medics, a blue mech named Seasalt, and continued my search for Armageddon.

As I flew over the small island in the middle of Lake Erie, I saw several 'Cons and 'Bots. There was Sentinel, Magnus, Optimus, Sarscream and an unknown black femme. I was pissed off at the sight of the 'Cons, presumably the ones who had touched my Jazz. I needed to break something. Or _someone_**.**

I transformed and landed, pinning down a black femme, who looked somewhat familiar, my hands to her shoulders. I pulled my lip plates over my teeth in an angry snarl, glaring daggers at her.

"Ah, recruiting femmes now are we?" she shouted over my shoulder to Optimus, "Getting a little desperate aren't we now?"

Optimus shot her a confused glance. "She's not with us."

"Shut up!" I yelled and manoeuvred me hands so that one was pinning her down by the throat and the other had transformed into a bazooka and was pointing at Optimus.

"I'm not with them, and that's none of your damn business either."

"Let her go," Starscream commanded. I turned and glared at him, pointing me bazooka at him and reaching over my shoulder and taking out a hidden scythe and poising it at her neck, it barely brushed against her neck armour when she started bleeding energon. She gasped in surprise at the sharpness of the blade, causing me to snicker.

"You wanna take her place 'Con? 'Cuz I want some answers and I ain't leaving without them." I snapped.

I could sense the femme try to move, but because I had paralysed her (hooray for my unique ability) she couldn't even twitch a finger. All she could move was her optics and mouth.

I laughed again, "Not taking to the paralysation too well are we, darlin'?"

Starscream winced, "Ask whatever you want, just don't hurt her."

I smiled menacingly, finally getting what I wanted. "Alright, let's play a little game. Question one, which one of you scum-bags damaged Jazz?"

She let out a weak laugh, "That would be me," my gaze flickered back to her and my optics narrowed as I pressed the blade every so softly against her neck. It slid a couple of inches into my neck. She could still breathe, it wasn't enough to off-line her.

"Question two, I believe the 'Cons have a friend of mine in captivity, where is she?"

Starscream and the femme exchanged glances. "…I'm not in captivity anymore, Starscream came and busted me out soo…"

I narrowed my eyes at her, "Armageddon?"

"No, it's Pinocchio. Of course it's me! Geez, Sparkles, I didn't think you were _that_ thick!"

My optics widened in surprise and I lifted the paralysation. She twitched her fingers and said, "Now if you don't mind, Mrs. Edward Cullen, You're kind of _on top_ of me with a blade to _my throat _and it's kind of kinky. And I don't think Edward would like it if he found out you were cheating on him... or at least something that looked like that"

I moved my weight off her body and Starscream rushed to her side. I went over to a tree and started bashing my head in. I heard their conversation.

Starscream: "Are you alright?"

Armageddon: "Well if your definition of 'alright' is bleeding by the hand of your best friend who turns out to be incredibly dangerous, all the while having this numb feeling and not exactly feeling any pain, then yeah, I'm alright."

Starscream: *sigh* "What am I going to do with you?"

Armageddon: "Keep me by your side and kill anyone who comes near me?"

Starscream: "Done. Shall I start with her?"

"Slag. Slag. Slag. Slag. Slag. Slag. Slag…" I muttered with each hit to the head to the tree... to the head.

Armageddon: "I think she's suffered enough."

Then she called to me, "Hey Grim!" I stopped denting my forehead and turned to look at her. "Why did you care so much about Jazz anyway?"

My face plates went hot. "Never mind that." I mumbled, turning my head away, after quickly shooting a glance in Starscream's direction.

I saw her nod slowly and smirk out of the corner of my optic. She knew. Damn, she was fast.

"You do realise it will be difficult to get into the Elite Guard's Ship to see him. What with your 'Con optic colour and bloodlust."

I grinned mischievously at this, opening a private comm. between us. "_We have our arrangements_."

She shook her head while grinning, tutting quietly over the comm.

Starscream, feeling a little left out, tried to enter the conversation. "So how did it happen? The transformation."

"It's a long story."

"We've got time." Armageddon pressed.

I sighed. "Alright, sit down then."

Starscream put a hand up to stop us. "Wait, what about Optimus?" We all glanced over at Optimus Prime, who was, coincidentally, paralysed. Having forgotten him I looked up, laughed to myself, then pointed a bazooka at him and shot him through the gut.

"He'll be out for a little while." She grinned "We have time to talk."

"Okay, so tell us everything." She demanded. I raised an optic ridge.

"_Us, eh?" _I teased through the comm.

"_Shut up!"_ she snapped. "_Now get on with the story_."

I sat down below my head-whacking tree and crossed my legs. I began speaking while they sat down, Starscream leaning against a tree opposite me and she sat on his lap. They were definitely together.

"Okay, so you know those glasses and that funny earpiece you found? The one that changed you into this?" I waved a hand at her metallic body, she nodded. "Well Ratchet took them away and duplicated them, it took a long time, and he only managed to get one done.

"Of course, it was a prototype. Unstable and un-tested. Naturally all the others took this time to be cowards so I got the job of being the test dummy. This one was…different from yours. It didn't seek out the closest machine. It found the machine that best fit our personalities." I shrugged. "I guess my personality made me the fastest Transformer alive."

And so I told them everything up until this moment.

oOo

**Armageddon's POV**

There were things. Things I could feel watching me, but I was all alone. Or was I? I started walking quickly, and then broke into a run. But it was like trying to run through honey. I could barely move. I couldn't breathe. It was closing in, crushing me like a boa constrictor.

I saw something ahead of me. It was like a star, pulsing and radiating life and warmth. The beats were slowing down and I could feel my own heart slow and beat in time with the star. I reached for it, trying to save it, to protect it from whatever was killing it. But as my hand touched it, the brilliant blue star turned into a rock so black that it seemed to shine with pure darkness.

My heart failed me.

oOo

**Pheonix's POV**

I am Phoenix, an air force lieutenant pilot. I live to fly. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, whether it's recon, a particularly tough mission or transport, I just love the sky. I'm black, with black spiky hair and dark brown eyes. I'm also really tall.

It was a Wednesday when _it_ happened. I was eating lunch with my best friend and wing mate, Frankie. His glossy black hair always had a halo of white when there was light and his emerald eyes and fair skin seemed to glow when he was happy. We were laughing at a joke he had just cracked when Simon, our first lieutenant, cut the meal short.

"There's been a battle between the Decepticons and Autobots in Pontiac," he stated, "the anonymous witness said that they were tearing the place up before the line went dead. C'mon, we're some of those who've been chosen to track the 'Cons down and kill them."

Frankie and I followed him out, getting into our respective jets. Superiority fighter jets, hmm... this must be a pretty tough mission then.

We took off and headed towards the city near Detroit, where the 'Bots and 'Cons normally were. Maybe they were spreading? I sure as hell hope not. As we approached the battlefield, we could tell this was very serious. Half the buildings were destroyed, there were several huge craters with alien ships at the centre, human bodies everywhere, congealed blood in large puddles, and the few human survivors were running for their lives. I could imagine their petrified screams as they fled the warzone.

There were at least a hundred giant alien robots in total, though about half were dead. I couldn't help but notice two kneeling in a puddle of dark purple liquid, which must be the blood or something of the one with the slashed neck. As I watched, the one with the bleeding neck fell back and another nearby one leaned over it.

Two others, watching and armed, one I recognized as one of the 'Cons, was standing beside a black one I didn't know. If they were standing there, preparing to attack by the looks of it, then the other one must be a 'Con.

I circled back and fired at them both. Missiles went flying, the 'Con I knew was hit and fell back, unmoving. The other one, which was black, glared at me and fired at me with a giant bazooka. I dodged and fired heat seeking missiles at it. They were all one their mark, but the black thing didn't seem to notice, it just kept firing at me, those crimson eyes burning right into mine.

I continued to circle above it, avoiding all of its shots. I radioed Frankie, "Hey Frankie, little help here."

"_On it._"

He joined me in moments, and fired at the robot. It was getting really badly banged up, in fact I was amazed it could walk, but it just wouldn't go down. I was getting tired of this. I dropped a perfectly aimed bomb.

The thing's screams could be heard above the roar of the jet engines.

When the smoke cleared, it was lying on the ground, looking like nothing more than bleeding scrap metal with burning red eyes. They locked with mine for a moment before going black and lifeless.

**Ratchet's POV**

I whirled around and saw the remains of Armageddon. I rushed to her side. She was so scrapped I wasn't sure if there was any way I could repair her. Her optics were off. I checked for a pulse and found one, to my amazement. I scanned her briefly and saw the damage was too much. She needed a new body. Her armour looked like a piece of paper someone had scrunched up and thrown away.

"Echo!" I shouted, "Fly these two to the base NOW! Armageddon won't survive for very long with this kind of damage and Grim could leak to deactivation. I'll get there as fast as I can."

Slag, I hate it when someone goes suicidal.

He picked up the two femmes and cradled them carefully in his arms. Armageddon looked so small and fragile compared to him, being an eighth of his size. He took to the darkened skies without changing to his B-2 Spirit alt form. I transformed and sped as fast as I possibly could towards Detroit. I kept the sirens and lights off until I had gotten far away enough from the battlefield. I didn't let Echo out of my sight, just driving at top speed the entire way there.

When I finally got to the base, I wasn't as exhausted as I should be because of the fear adrenaline. I was scared for Grim, scared for Armageddon, scared for Echo. Not quite sure why I was scared for him, but I couldn't dwell on that.

The moment I got into the Med Bay, I put Armageddon on life support and repaired Grim's neck. A more thorough scan of her showed that Soundwave had left her a passing gift after their telepathic battle. When I had done all I could for the moment, I said to Echo, "Take her to that cell. Keep an optic on her 24/7. It's worse than I thought. Make sure she doesn't get too emotional. Right now I need to save Armageddon."

He nodded and took her into the Med Bay-like cell, locking the door behind him. I turned my attention to the black pile of barely living scrap metal. I sighed. First thing first, I had to build a spark chamber. Second, transfer her spark to the new chamber. I might need some help with that, Echo was a fast learner and good apprentice. Third, I had to build her a brand new body.

This was going to take a lot of work. I got going straight away.

A/N: I know, that last part was confusing, but all will be explained! Trust me on that one.


	11. 50 year old secrets

Chapter 10 – 50 year old secrets

River People  
By Madina Lake

_They crawl in your head,  
__They dig in your bones,  
__If you let them, they won't let go.  
__They have no hope,  
__They have no soul.  
__If you let them,  
__They'll take yours._

**Armageddon's POV **

The darkness seemed like it would be eternal. The black creature was back, with the pink and grey one known as Starscream. They were on a great white desert... the moon, I realized.

The black creature was looking down on Earth, and wondered out loud what its friends were up to.

oOo

**No-one's POV**

On Earth, Armageddon's friends, the sticky-tape-obsessed Fyromaniac, the hyperactive Skullzy, the trigger-happy Massacre and the ever-funny Jumpy were walking down the streets of Detroit. They had nothing to do and they were bored.

When their other friend, the blood-loving Armageddon, became a giant transforming robot and went missing, and when General Fluffles (yes, they came up with another name for Grim) died, they had called in the police to search for her. Only problem was that none of the coppers believed the five teenagers from 2008.

Damn cops.

They roamed the streets now the friends barely knew anyone in this strange year of 2058. They didn't even know their way around the massive city of Detroit, which was why the roamed the streets so much, as they had come from Australia. Armageddon would know where to go, she was the TF guru. She knew everything about them.

Come to think of it, what was their home country like now?

They _did _all have a bloodlust, but that wasn't bad. They _did_ like gore and battle, but that was in movies, only Massacre really liked shooting anyone, the rest of them preferred to either blow enemies to bits or hack 'em to little bloody chunks of flesh. They weren't all that bad, so why did they deserve what was coming next?

About 30 metres away from the five, Mixmaster and Scrapper were emitting smoke, having trouble as they ran, Scrapper with the Allspark under his arm, headed towards the Decepticon secret base. They were running from the Autobots, who were chasing them to get back the Allspark.

In a matter of moments, there was an explosion.

The teens were just far away enough to not be killed, but just close enough to be badly hurt. There was a sucking noise. All the air was gone for a moment. Then there was a massive roar and they were thrown forward, crashing to the hard ground. Windows smashed and the glass embedded itself in their skin. Structures were destroyed and broke various bones. Their ears and noses were bleeding freely. They were in agony.

They had been on a relatively busy street. They were the only survivors.

After what felt like an eternity in hell and utter agony, screaming sirens could be heard nearing them. Ambulance pulled up and loaded the barely conscious teens onto stretchers and into the vehicles. When the doors slammed shut, the sirens and lights were turned back on and the ambulances rushed off towards the hospital.

oOo

The incident was on the news. 'Miracle Survival', it was called commonly.

When Optimus Prime switched on the news, that story was up. The other Autobots didn't take long to gather around the TV.

"_Four teenage girls were caught in a huge explosion today and miraculously survived,_" the reporter-bot started, the camera showing an image of Skullzy, Massacre, Jumpy and Fyromaniac lying in their respective hospital beds, all badly wounded and unconscious. "_No-one knows their names or anything about them. They have been tracked down and apparently were living 50 years ago, still the same age. People believe that to simply be a glitch in the system. Sadly, even though they survived the explosion, doctors believe that they will not survive their wounds._"

The story then went onto another one.

"We have to help them," Bulkhead announced, stating the obvious, "but they might not survive… what do we do?"

Ratchet was thinking hard. He remembered the gizmo someone had found… his memory had gone fuzzy around that time. The gizmo was named the Gizmo Glasses. An idea formed, "If I could duplicate four more Gizmo Glasses, they could get new bodies and survive. The injuries would have no effect if they had robot bodies. They could live if they agreed."

Optimus nodded and ordered, "Ratchet, Sari, come on, let's go to the hospital and ask them. Transform and r—"

"Hold on, Boss Bot," Bumblebee interrupted, "the rest of us are coming too."

Optimus bobbed his head and ordered again, "Autobots, transform and roll out!"

They obeyed, Sari climbing into Bumblebee as usual, and drove towards the hospital.

When they rolled up and transformed at the hospital, Sari entered and asked for her friends and was shown the way. She made her way to their room and signalled from the window to the 'Bots as to where they were.

She greeted her friends, who were all awake. Ratchet looked in through the window and talked over his comrades' greetings to the teens, "Hi girls. Did you hear from the doctors?"

They nodded.

"Yeah," Jumpy confirmed, "but we're not going to give up and go all pessimistic, now are we?"

Her friends grinned and agreed with her.

"Anyway," the medic continued, "there might be a way you could survive for sure." His spark lifted when he saw their hopeful faces, but he kept his face straight, "I could duplicate those gizmos that were found the other day. We called 'em Gizmo Glasses. If you each got one, you could convert to robot forms, become one of us."

They looked excited.

"But," he said, "I would have to make one adjustment: as soon as you got your robot forms, the connection between both would have to be severed. You alright with this?"

They nodded slowly.

"Good, I'll get started when we get back, then," Ratchet vanished from the teens' view.

Bulkhead's face appeared, "Hey, how's it been going?"

And so the 'Bots caught up with the teens, two at a time as there were two windows. The chat was casual, but everyone was deep down concerned. Ratchet was thinking intently, already planning on how he would alter the Gizmos for the connection to be severed.

Optimus tapped him on the shoulder, bringing the older back to reality with a jolt.

"Are you alright, Ratchet?" the young leader inquired, "You look sad."

"Nah," Ratchet shook his head, "I'm just thinking, that's all."

"Ok," the younger backed off, although not seeming entirely convinced.

By the time they had to go, Ratchet had the idea pretty well set out, but he needed the actual Gizmo to confirm it.

oOo

Over the next few days, the 'Bots visited the girls every day, except for Ratchet, who was working hard to get his project done in case of a Decepticon attack. It was nice for the girls to just talk casually and forget for a while that they were due to die soon, unless Ratchet got his job done.

They laughed at the most random stuff they could think of, the 'Bots had no idea and Sari was too young to know, and she really didn't want to. They talked about stuff which didn't matter at all but was very important to them, like how incredibly sexy plywood was. Jumpy even swooned and 'died' once. The 'Bots got really upset of course, as Jumpy had sneakily pulled off the wire which measured her heart rate.

When she jumped up and started laughing her head off, the 'Bots nearly had a spark attack, scolding her to not do that again, while her friends said that she was simply havin fun, like they always did.

They decided what their alt forms would be with the 'Bots, who looked it upon the net. They had it all planned out; what colours they would have, what their to-be alt forms' capabilities were, what they were going to do as soon as they had their new bodies, everything. It was fun planning it. They were eager for when Ratchet was done.

The 'Bots chatted with the girls for a couple of hours each day, before Optimus suggested they leave, as they needed their rest.

In four days since the incident, Ratchet completed the five Gizmos at roughly 2 in the afternoon. He informed Optimus and all the 'Bots sped straight to the hospital, excited.

When they arrived, Ratchet told the teens and Sari handed out the Gizmos.

The teens eagerly slid on the Gizmos and pressed the buttons. Their heart monitors went flat line. The Gizmos deployed tiny flying radars which rose into the air and scanned the area for the desired vehicles. When none were found nearby, they flew out, searching further.

Sari quickly took off the Glasses and hid them.

The 'Bots ducked down just as doctors and nurses rushed in and shoved Sari out of the room. They tried using the defribulator on the girls to try and get their hearts started again, but nothing would work.

They tried everything, but they were too late. All five teenagers were pronounced dead.

Sari went out of the hospital and waited with the 'Bots. They estimated that it would take at most 10 minutes for the teens to find them. They waited half an hour before they finally gave up and headed back to the base.

They were silent, the heavy sad air hung around them like a thick fog.

Ratchet was the most haunted. He had failed. The teens were dead.

Back at the hospital, the doctors and nurses covered up the bodies and left. Beneath the sheet, Jumpy's eyes opened.

oOo

**Etrius Moore's POV**

My name is Etrius Moore. I am 32 years old. I am a doctor here at Red Cross Hospital, Detroit. I am paranoid, and I have a damn good reason to be...

When I heard the story of 5 teenage girls who were apparently from 50 years ago, naturally I was suspicious. Others thought it to simply be a glitch in the system, but I disagreed.

The moment I got some spare time, I looked them up. They were indeed last seen 50 years ago, at their exact same age. But where I found the information, there were 8 children and 2 adults.

It read:

_4/2/2008_

_I've been stressed about what's been happening at my house today, so I posted this on my blog. You might know me well enough by now that I won't tell you anyone's real name._

_We live out of town, so there are open spaces and bush around our house and not many neighbours nearby. My slightly younger sister, Geraldine, was having a sleepover with some of her friends: Amy, Fran, Jess, Maddy, Sally and a new friend she had met, Sara. Sara's father, Zach, and some other guy, Mr Zone (I never learned what he was doing there, but apparently he was a policeman), had just arrived to pick Geraldine's friends up and take them to their respective homes. Of course, the teenage girls (Sara is 8) were not quite ready. There were all the normal noises of them getting ready. Then it happened._

_I was in my room, surfing the net, when I suddenly noticed that it was deathly quiet. I thought that the visitors had left, but when I looked out the window, the cars were still there._

_I went downstairs to the room in which the girls had slept, and saw that all their stuff was still there, so they hadn't left yet. My parents came into the room as well, and said that they had seen a bright light coming from here._

_We called out, but there was no answer. We searched the house, but we couldn't find them anywhere. We rang our neighbours and they joined in the search. We couldn't find them anywhere. We even called the police, search and rescue teams, SES, etc and searched for the rest of the day, but they seemed to have disappeared into thin air._

_There were no unknown cars hanging around, and no suspicious activity, so they couldn't have been kidnapped. As far as I knew, they weren't depressed or anything, so they had no motive to run away. And even if they did, they would've taken something and we would've found them by now, but everything was as it was before they vanished, and we were very thorough at searching._

_When I went to bed that night, I couldn't sleep, as I was too worried and trying to think of something to explain it all. I couldn't come up with anything._

_I'm still confused, even as I write this now, that same night. Any suggestions would be great! I myself can't get my head around it. How can they just disappear without a trace like that? And what was with that light my parents saw? Weird. Anyway, I'll update as soon as I can, hopefully with some answers._

_Altair _

------------

There was nothing after that. Strange. Why had it ended so abruptly? Oh well, it happened 50 years ago, I would probably never find out.

oOo

**Altair Hailstrom's POV**

_50 years ago..._

My name is Altair, which comes from an Arabic name meaning 'star', even though I'm not Arabic, I'm Aboriginal Australian, but over time I had to change my name. It's a very uncommon name, which is a shame, really. I'm 18 years old. I'm an orphan, living with an adopted family who are awesome.

My sister, Spectre, six of her friends, Acheron Pittman, Fyromaniac, Massacre, Jumpy and Skullzy, a new friend of theirs, Sari (who is 8), her father, Isaac, and some other guy, Captain Fanzone, all went missing exactly one week ago.

Our neighbours, random people off the street, SES, rangers, police, search and rescue teams, my parents and I had all been searching for them the day they went missing. There was absolutely no trace of them, no sign at all.

Finally, they gave up for a while. I was relieved, as all the anxiety was getting to me. I drove down to the beach, where I worked as a volunteer lifeguard.

The guys greeted me like it was a normal day, but I could still see the concern in their eyes.

The job went on through the day like normal. Whenever I was off shift, I would either chill or go surfing/swimming/whatever. I love the ocean. I've been scuba diving and snorkelling and holy cow it's awesome underwater. Maybe one day I'll do something like that for a living, maybe, I don't know, but I like saving lives, which is why I'm a lifeguard at the moment.

Around midday, while I was on lunch break and just chilling, when one of the guys said that a bunch of random guys in suits said they were looking for me. They came in and asked for a moment. My fellow lifeguard obediently left. I remembered the whole thing clearly.

One of the guys said, "We're from Sector Even, my name is Agent Johnson. We need to interview you about the disappearance and take you back to our headquarters."

"I'm working," I replied. I didn't need this. "Y'know, saving lives and stuff. You can come back later."

Something whacked me hard in the back of the head and I blacked out.

oOo

When I came to, I was in a small metal room with a bare light bulb, a table and four chairs. I tried opening the large metal door, but it was locked. "Hey!" I called out, "what's going on here?!" no-one answered me.

I sat in one of the seats and waited.

And waited.

And fucking waited.

Finally, after what must've been the most boring several hours of my life, the door opened and two guys in suits came in, including Agent Johnson. I was starving. I was tired. I was pissed off. I wanted answers.

"What's going on?" I demanded.

"We have reason to believe that the disappearance might be part of an international crisis," Johnson replied, "What do you know about aliens, kid?"

I was confused. What did aliens have to do with this? "Aliens? They're an urban myth right?"

He shook his head, "Nope. They're as real as you and me. We have reason to believe that you have had contact with them."

I snorted, "Pfft, as if. Do I _look_ like I'm besties with ET?"

He narrowed his eyes at me, "We know you know something. Now talk."

"This isn't funny. Seriously. I do NOT know any freaking aliens."

That was actually a lie. I did know aliens, or at least something like that. I had had contact with an alien _artefact _a long, long time ago...

**Flashback**

It was late at night, the clouds veiled the moon. I wasn't able to sleep at all. Against my will, I rose up and started running, away from my home, further and further away.

Everything started to swim. Black swirled across my vision and all my other senses failed me. But I kept on running, unable to stop myself, filled with endless energy that wasn't my own. I had no control over my body anymore.

When the black cleared completely, I was standing on top of a hill. I looked up and saw something falling from the skies. It was coming towards me. I wanted to move, to get to safety. My instincts were screaming at me to get away, that the thing was dangerous, but my feet were rooted to the ground.

I could only watch in terror as the fiery thing plummeted and crashed before me. The earth was ripped up, rocks and trees went flying and I was thrown back.

I groaned, sitting up. The thing was huge, in the shape of a cube and covered with strange carvings. It was made of something I had never seen before, like some kind of dark rock, but smooth and shiny. The clouds parted, as if just for this thing, and the moon shone eerily down on the object.

I stood up slowly, cautiously. Being naturally curious, and foolish at this young age, I moved towards it. It was calling me, I could feel my heart being tugged towards it. I reached out and brushed my fingers against it.

My screams of pure agony erupted into the night sky, but they were unlike my own screams, they were like those of some wild animal of terrible monster. The object burst into light brighter than the sun and I was blinded.

My knees buckled and I fell to the ground. My skin was torn, my bones were twisted, and I was bleeding badly. I lay there, unable to move, unable to make a sound. After a while, my bones untwisted, and my skin wove back together. I grit my teeth, trying to bite back the cries of pain, as my insides began to change, began to harden and become something I had never known before. My eyes hardened as well and I could see again.

I stood up, looking fearfully at the cube which had almost ruined my life. What in the world was this thing?

**End flashback**

That happened over 40,000 years ago. I had not aged a day since. I changed my name to Altair because it had happened at night, even though all the magic and beauty of the night had vanished long ago.

Johnson got out a hand held metal detector, grabbed my arm and scanned it.

The metal detector started beeping.

"How do you explain that?" he asked.

I sighed, taking my arm back. There was no point lying to them now that they knew I wasn't all flesh. "I don't _know _them," I explained, "I've never come into contact with them. I just touched a big, metal cube and all of a sudden I can't go on planes anymore because THIS happens." Well, that was after they invented planes and metal detectors.

"Is it just there, or does it serve a purpose?" he questioned, referring to the metal beneath my skin.

Should I show them? Was it a good idea? I had already spilled the beans, I may as well show them. "Do you have a machine of some sort on you? Like a mobile phone or something?"

He got out a flip phone and handed it to me. I took it and held it in my hands, closing my eyes, concentrating. I felt sparks leaping from my hands and into the phone. I felt it move, so I opened my eyes and my hands. The flip phone changed shape until it became a creature which resembled a tiny, metal bird with golden eyes.

I held it out to them and their eyes opened wide.

"_That _is the purpose." I stated.

After a moment of stunned silence, Johnson commanded, "Come with us, Altair."

I stood up and followed them out of the room, curling my hands around the bird creature protectively. I had created life, and I had a weird feeling that they might take it away.

"This is actually our _Australian _headquarters." Johnson began, "Our real name is Sector Seven, not Sector Even. We have something we really need to show you, but it's overseas, in America."

I shrugged, "I'm totally cool with going to America. Although... how long will I be there?" I had never been overseas in my whole long life. Of course I was eager to go.

He shrugged as well, "Not long, a month maybe. We can't be sure just yet. We may have a job for you over there."

I raised an eyebrow, "Say what?"

"We've heard from your family and friends that you are a gifted mechanic. That combined with... your power and you could help us unravel a century long secret."

"What's that?"

"The Cube, an alien artefact. We've had it at Sector Seven for over 100 years and we still can't quite figure out what it is. Maybe you can help us. It'll be the discovery of the century."

I stiffened. Old fear ran through my body. But I had to face my fear after all this time.

oOo

_31 hours later..._

Man, I was tired.

I had agreed to go to S7's real headquarters. Then I was chucked on a plane, flown to America, blindfolded, shackled, gagged, shoved in a car, and driven for seven more hours to their base, let out, guided down a long flight of stairs, unshackled, ungagged, and had the blindfold removed.

I was pissed off, of course.

"This is Sector Seven's base," Johnson stated, making a sweeping gesture with his arms, "although we only need to show you one thing."

As I glanced around, I saw glimpses of what they had here: more guys in suits, a fragment of what once must've been a golden disk, robot limbs, and other weird stuff which looked alien. The bird, which I had named Ezra, was with me the entire time. Now it was on my shoulder and clicked quietly.

They led me through several corridors before we finally came to a massive room, at least four football fields in area. There was machinery all over the place. I went pale when I saw what was in the very centre on the room, with some sort of custom made staircases snaking all over it:

The Cube, the Allspark, the thing which made me a freak with supernatural powers.

The thing which had ruined my life.

I resisted the strong urge to run from the room, far from the thing, far from the base, back to the land where I belonged.

But I had to face my age-long phobia.

They led me up another lot of stairs to a much smaller room, which had a window for a wall and got a good view of the gigantic room. On the opposite wall were seven photos of seven different men, with a wooden sign which read 'The First Seven'.

And thus he told me all about the Allspark, though it wasn't enough to quench my curiosity, how it was found, how S7 was first founded, what they did, and how and why the dam was built. He concluded, "... so we got President Hoover to build the dam, which needed to be the biggest in the world, to protect its energy signature from anyone or... and aliens outside from detecting it."

"What type of energy?" I asked, already having an idea of what the answer was.

"Come with us," Johnson, leaving the others behind, led me into another room, which had a heavy metal door, and the guard by the door locked us in. Inside the room, there were lots of wires and stuff hanging around the place, and in the centre was a small glass box, with one metal side which had a small door and a tiny gun-like thing hanging from the roof, mounted on a small table. He put on a pair of protection goggles and passed me a pair, which I put on as well.

He got out a pager, opened the door on the box, placed it inside, locked the door and began pulling switches and levers around the room, explaining, "We were able to harvest the energy from the Cube, and focus it into that box." He pressed a final button and there was a humming noise.

The gun-thing was lowered and a pulse of pure power was sent through the pager. It jumped and changed shape until it became some strange, almost humanoid creature. The creature tried ramming into the glass a few times, but found it was in a cage. It started shooting at the glass, but it was too thick for the tiny bullets to get through. It fired missiles at its confinement, which broke the glass a little.

Johnson sighed, "It's breaking it," he picked up a remote like device connected to the box by many wires, and pressed the button.

From inside the box, there came a scream and bright flash of light. When the light faded, the pager was lying dead and smoking on its back.

I shuddered, "So that's what you wanted to show me? Bring something to life only to kill it moments later? Disgusting."

"It's just a demo to show you what we can do," he replied, "it's just a machine, it can't feel anything."

I was pissed off all of a sudden, which rarely happens, "Didn't you hear that scream? It was in agony when you killed it. Didn't you see the look in its little blue eyes? It was confused and scared, suddenly finding that air was solid, it was pissed off at us because it _knew _we were responsible for its imprisonment and it was trying to get out."

"Are you saying—" he began.

"That it was as alive as you and me? Just like how aliens are as real as you and me?" I interrupted, "yeah, that's _exactly _what I'm saying. If you're going to create life here, I advise you give it a greater purpose than a demo."

"That's why we need you here."

"What?"

"You seem to understand the N.B.E.s, non-biological extraterrestrials, and beings like them. If you stayed and helped us, we could understand much more than we already know."

I paused, thinking hard. Did I really want to help these guys? They wasted lives meaninglessly and I was against that. But I _did _need to learn more about the Allspark if I was going to conquer my fear. I needed to figure out how it had changed me, and why. It seemed that guys were prodding and touching it all the time, not like what had happened to me, and when I showed them my abilities they were surprised, so it must be new to them. If I stayed and helped them, maybe I could do something about the life wasting.

The pros outweighed the cons, so I nodded my head and said, "Alright, but you have to promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"Promise me that you'll stop wasting lives. They might be machines, but they can obviously feel and think, just like you and me."

"Ok, on behalf of Sector Seven, I promise."


	12. Resound

Chapter 11 – resound

Home  
By Three Days Grace

_I'll be coming home,  
__Just to be alone.  
__Cuz I know you're not there,  
__And I know that you don't care._

**Altair's POV**

_The year 2058_

The organization known as Stop Sector Seven had succeeded in shutting us down 30 years ago. I have never been back to Australia in that whole time and I am very homesick. It's like I left my heart back there. We had started a new organization known as Area Eight. Because of the Allspark, which had been mostly destroyed and was now inaccessible to us, I was eternally18 years old, or at least I appeared that way.

I was eternally terrified of the Allspark.

I knew it wasn't totally gone.

It was a normal day for me. I was studying a small fragment of N.B.E 0.5's armour. He was called that because he was discovered before Ice Man AKA Megatron and was not all non biological. There were patches on his body which were those of a human being – liver, heart, lungs, parts of a brain, eyeball, and small intestine. His left thigh, right shoulder, right foot, left lower arm, all human.

Well... he _did _have those human parts before November 17th, 1997... it's a long story. Anyway, before that day, they had taken samples of the flesh and preserved it. They found that his DNA was not of any human on Earth, but was closest to the DNA of my sister, Spectre.

Weird, eh? It's a small world.

So get this, I was studying this bit of armour – today I was trying to figure out similarities between the material of the armour and metals on Earth – when all of a sudden, the speaker says, "N.B.E. 0.5 is melting. We're losing him."

I looked up from my work, looking at 0.5 and I saw his right hand twitch. I was in a lab above him which had a good view of him.

"0.5 is waking up," I said to the guy next to me, Bill (grandson of a friend who knew a friend who knew a friend who knew Agent Johnson. Like I said, it's a small world). He was one of the few guys here who wasn't an asshole.

"Say goodbye to the most secret thing we got," he replied, "like the Ice Man, we're not going to be able to stop this guy. Were you there last time it happened?" yeah, it's common knowledge that I've been around for 68 years and haven't aged a day.

"Yep, I was there," I replied, "everyone was freaking. At the time it was scary as hell, but when you look back, it's funny as."

He nodded, "what do you reckon this one will do?"

I shrugged, "most likely make a break for it. Most of them do that, unless there's something here they want. My guess is that he'll just go; he came before anything else, so we probably won't have anything he wants."

Both of 0.5's hands curled into fists.

"Yeah, we lost him," I announced, "everyone should get out of there as fast as they can."

"Should we go?" Bill asked.

"You run for your life," I said casually, "seriously, run as far and fast as you can, this is most likely to get ugly. I want to stick around and enjoy the show. Who knows, maybe he'll kill me," I smiled at the thought of the last sentence. I wanted my life to be over. Never wish for immortality, it sucks and blows big time.

He nodded in understanding, "Alright, see ya Altair." He started running.

"Bye," I called after him, turning back to 0.5 and opening the window of the lab for a better show. I leaned out dangerously.

0.5 started twisting his body and shaking off all the ancient ice which had covered him for as long as I had known him. He had been discovered at the bottom of the sea and they had covered him in ice. In less than a minute, he was free.

Unlike other N.B.E.s had done before him, he didn't instantly make a break for it. Instead he stood there for a moment, bringing his hand up to his face and examining it. He held it a few meters away from his face and growled, as if in frustration.

The people who had tried to re-freeze him had done the smart thing and run. I was the only one left.

There was a noise I hadn't heard in a long time: computers talking to each other, that noise you hear when you're starting up the dial-up for the web.

He looked at me. Well, I couldn't actually tell because of the visor, but he turned and faced me square on. He took a few steps forward until his face was a few meters away from mine.

He greeted me, "Hi there... um... Earth creature. Where am I?" he had a voice which sounded younger than my own, but older than Earth itself at the same time.

I replied like I was talking to a friend rather than a giant alien robot, "Area Eight's base, in the Bermuda Triangle, on the planet Earth... yeah, it's a long story."

He nodded, "Cool. I'm Echo."

"I'm Altair Hailstrom."

He smiled, "Awesome. Anyway, I have to go now and check out Earth. Which way is the exit?"

I pointed to the right hand side of the room, towards a huge exit, "Over that way. Go straight until you have to go either left or right. Go right. Turn at the second left. Keep going until you come to a fork in the road. Go left. Keep going straight until you come to a pair of massive metal doors, go through those and you're out." I knew I would get into massive trouble for this, but I didn't care.

He nodded again, taking it in, "Thanks, Altair. See ya." He turned and walked out of the room.

Guys began to chase him, armed with guns, yelling after him. I coolly walked towards the exit, going by a shortcut which 0.5... Echo wouldn't be able to fit through: vents. I knew this entire place like the back of my hand. I crawled through them until I got outside, right where Echo would come out.

I dropped down and waited behind a clump of bushes. It didn't take long before the doors swung open and Echo stepped out. Guys who were trying to get him rushed out and tried shooting him. Echo was smart. _Now_ he made a break for it.

I heard more sounds which I hadn't heard in a long time: transformation. His body started twisting, parts sliding over parts, folding over himself, changing, until in his place was a B-2 Spirit, or at least something extremely similar. He hadn't scanned anything and had come long before humans were around, so surely his was his alien alt form. Why was it so similar to a stealth bomber from so long ago?

He took off, flying dangerously low to the water, only 15 meters above the waves. Any lower than 30 meters is dangerous, because of how high the waves can get, especially in a stealth bomber.

I climbed back up to the vents using the uneven wall to my advantage. I crawled as quickly through the vents as I could to the helicopter hanger. I had to see what Echo was doing and where he was going.

I pushed off the grill when I came to the hanger and let myself fall out. I stood up, ran over to a chopper someone was about to use, shoved him out of the way, got in, started it up and took off. Because it was about to be used, the ceiling was open so I could just take off and not have to stop.

I flew after Echo as fast as the chopper would go, going at the safe height. He was fast, and I lost sight of him after a while, but I didn't turn back. The other S7 guys would definitely know which chopper I was flying, but when Bill contacted me, he said,

"_Get 'im, Altair."_

I laughed, "Copy that. You'll probably never see him or me again."

"_Why? Got a suicide planned?"_ he was being totally serious. They understood my wish to die and they respected it.

"No. Just a gut feeling, y'know? Tell everyone I said later, will you?"

"_I'll do that. See ya later, Altair."_

"Bye, Bill."

He knew I was for real.

I turned off the radio and continued pursuing Echo. I saw a white dot on the horizon directly ahead and knew that it was him. I pushed the chopper faster.

There was a strip of hazy black on the horizon and I knew we had almost reached land. I followed him as he slowed down, probably checking the place out, and stayed back far enough so he wouldn't notice me. He flew over the countryside four hours until he finally came to a huge lake and city, Lake Erie and Detroit.

He transformed and landed near an old warehouse and I landed on the roof of another large building close by and turned it off. He cautiously entered and I lost sight of him.

I climbed out of the chopper and took the stairs to the ground floor. Making sure he didn't see me, I crept in after him. I couldn't believe what I saw. It was the dream of any A8 worker.

**Grim's POV**

I had to tell them who I was. I couldn't pretend that I was Deadwind forever. And all my friends were dead, except for Armageddon, so what was the point faking anymore?

I called all the 'Bots into the living room. I was a bit uncomfortable at first, "Um guys... there's something really important I need to tell you... I'm... I'm not actually Deadwind."

"What do you mean?" Bulkhead asked.

"I-I'm actually... Grim Reaper."

"T-That's impossible! How did this happen!?" Bumblebee exclaimed.

_That's__ exactly what Jazz said, _I thought, then replied, "Well... I lied to you. The Gizmo Glasses didn't work right, Ratchet, I talked to Armageddon and she said there was something wrong. I went through agony and she didn't. So I pretended to die and came back, saying that I had crash landed and watched Grim die. I hoped that you would improve them so my friends didn't die." I forced a small smile, "I don't think they did."

There was a sad silence. Then a new voice spoke up,

"I'm sorry."

We turned and saw a tall snow white mech with a blue visor covering his optics. When I say tall, I mean _excessively _tall, over four times Optimus' height, who's two storeys high. This guy is eight storeys tall. That's just plain scary. He had strangely shaped wings. _I wonder what he transformed into._

"Who are you?" Optimus growled, looking ready to rip this guy's throat out if he wanted to, although, the guy would probably rip _Optimus' _throat out first if he was attacked. It was obviously unwise to mess with this guy.

"Echo," the mech replied, "and you?"

"Optimus Prime," he answered.

The mech raised an optic ridge, "What are you trying to pull? You're not the King of Cybertron."

We were all confused. What was this Echo guy going on about?

"Prime means that you're the King," Echo explained, "I know who the King is, and you're not him. No wait, I've been in stasis lock a long time, I'm not sure how long, maybe things changed while I was gone." He shrugged, "I don't know. Stuff changes fast anyway. Don't worry about it. You don't look stupid enough to pretend to be the King."

"So... what the slag are you doing here?" Bumblebee asked, earning a whack on the back of the head from Ratchet.

"OW! What was that for?"

"Yeah, what the fuck was that for, Hatchet?" I demanded, swearing like a gangster with a word they didn't know, "I mean, I fucking swear all the fucking time, but you don't fucking whack me on the head. Seriously, what the fuck?"

He just looked at me like I was a retard, I grinned, but looked back at Echo when he said, "Where else am I supposed to go?"

"What do you mean by that?" Prowl asked.

He sighed, looking away, a pained look flashing across his face, "If you don't know, then it should stay that way."

There was a silence, then I suggested, "Well... why don't you stay with us? There's room enough for you."

He beamed at me and I returned it.

We had a new member.

_A/N: I'm getting traffic but no reviews. Review people! Please..._


	13. Rampage

Chapter 12 – rampage

Animal I Have Become  
By Tree Days Grace

_I can't escape this hell,  
__So many times I've tried,  
__But I'm still caged inside.  
__Somebody get me through this nightmare,  
__I can't control myself._

**Armageddon's POV**

There was another snip. This one was of the black creature going on another rampage. It wasn't doing it voluntarily, it was starving and unable to control itself, like it was some sort of puppet.

It was eating hundreds of humans.

_Alive._

Choppers, jets and tanks tried to bring it down, but nothing could touch it. It flew off, diving into the water, where they couldn't bother it.

oOo

**Phoenix Hailstrom's POV**

I was concerned when I heard about a giant alien robot (Autobot? Decepticon?) going on a rampage through Detroit and eating hundreds of humans, _alive_.

It was a red alert. The entire military scrambled all of their forces, including the Air Force, and we were sent in to kill this thing.

We used more helicopters than jets, as they were slower and more manoeuvrable. I myself got a Comanche. They were pretty old, but so good that we still use them. We got them all loaded up with our best weapons. Then we were off, heading from our base to Detroit.

I said to Frankie over the radio, "Nervous, Frankie?"

"_Sorta,_" he replied, _"you know those Autobots and Decepticons over in Detroit?"_

"Yeah. You think this guy is one of them?"

"_Yep. It can't be anything else."_

"You'd think so, but since when do they _eat people_?"

He paused, "_this could be a new one. There have been new guys coming in lately. I think it's a 'Con, as the 'Bots have sworn to protect us."_

"Probably is. We'll have to see what insignia it has."

"_Would you two shut up?"_ Simon snapped, "_We gotta concentrate."_

We were quiet after that. You never mess with Simon. He had one hell of a temper and he gets tight as when he gets nervous, and I knew that we all were a little nervous, at least.

We got there in about an hour. There were tanks, soldiers, trucks, everything.

We stood by, hovering in the air, until Simon gave us the order, "_There's the bogie boys, give it everything you got."_

The enemy, or bogie, was a huge black robot. It had wings, so I guessed that it was a Decepticon. It looked different to the others… slimmer and with more curves. Was it a female? I don't like hitting ladies, but I had to, so I fired a few laser-guided missiles.

The missiles, everything all of us had fired at it… her… hit their mark perfectly. But it seemed to have a force field of some kind around it, so nothing damaged her. She seemed to come out of a trance. She looked up, and I swear she looked directly at me, her crimson eyes burning into mine. I knew those eyes...

Oh, my God, the thing that had been destroyed at Pontiac last fortnight.

And then she was gone. She transformed into an f-117 Nighthawk (a stealth aircraft from _50 years ago_? I thought those things had gone out of service…) and flew off at speeds I didn't think a Nighthawk could ever go.

We gave chase, still firing and having no effect on her because of the force field. We flew over Lake Erie and she slowed way down. I got a lock on her and fired, but she dropped dived into the water.

Everyone was freaked out now. We had NEVER come across anything like this. I mean, force fields are supposed to be just science fiction, right? There's no way a Nighthawk could go that fast, right? This didn't make any sense.

They called in the Autobots. Everyone was told to completely surround the lake and stand by. I landed the Comanche and waited. I watched police choppers and speedboats go all over the lake and chase civilians out. It took them a full hour to get everyone out, and by then the 'Bots had only just arrived (damn Detroit's terrible traffic). There were tonnes of civilians gathering around the edge of the lake, demanding to know what was going on. I just sat in my chopper and waited for the next move.

Frankie came over and said, "Hey Phoenix, if anyone asks, the story is that we're doing 'target practice'."

I snorted, "No-one's going to buy that. I mean, come on, the civilians have already seen the bogie. Everyone has a camera and phone these days, so they must've gotten footage and photos. Then you got the huge amount of military around the lake. Whoever comes up with these stories really needs new material."

Frankie nodded, "not wrong. But what else could they say? We don't want the public getting freaked out."

I shrugged, "I don't know, but there's got to be a better story than that, hasn't there?"

He shrugged, "Probably. Anyway, I should get back to my chopper."

I nodded and continued to just sit and wait. There was nothing better to do. I heard over the radio that they were sending in bombers and aircraft loaded with something called 'Hydra Torpedoes'. I've never heard of those before.

A few bomber aircraft flew overhead and dropped bombs into random places in the central area of the lake. Not nuclear, just average ones. Then about 30 seconds later, more aircraft flew closer to the water surface and dropped what looked like torpedoes. Must be those Hydra Torpedoes they were talking about.

There's no _way_ the bogie could survive that. It had to have been hit.

We got the order to be ready. I started up the chopper and took off, just hovering, waiting, like the rest of us pilots.

We waited a few minutes. Then something really weird happened.

Glowing purple stuff began to rise up from the water, spreading out and changing the water.

"What the hell…" I muttered, preparing to use my missiles.

A few minutes later, there was movement in the middle of the lake, right where the purple stuff had started. Then the bogie burst out of the water in robot form without a single scratch on her.

We fired everything we had at her, but of course, it didn't damage her at all because of that damn force field. But I did see her falter. Maybe we can hurt her after all.

The civilians started screaming. I knew that they knew we had lied to them and this is the real deal. I risked a look down. They were running away as fast as they could, a few even had mobiles to their ears. They were calling people at a time like this?

I returned my attention to the bogie and then I heard the most horrible, ear splitting, animal-like roar I've ever heard in my entire life. She was going crazy. Both her arms combined and transformed into… was that a giant bazooka?!

It was. She started blowing vehicles up.

The general ordered over the radio, "_All units, power down now!_"

I had no idea why he gave us an order like that, but I reluctantly obeyed. I landed the chopper and turned the power completely off.

The bogie was throwing up. The water was being contaminated with her puke. Yuck. I made a face at the gross act. Then I got a stab of dread when I saw her fly to the opposite shore of the lake and land. I thought I knew what was going to happen.

Oh God, I was right.

She started picking up 3 or 4 people (civilians and military both) in her hands and eating them alive, tearing them to shreds, letting the blood spill, scooping up more and repeating the gruesome process. I was too horrified to look away.

"Why did the general tell us to land?" I moaned, feeling so defenceless and totally unable to help those people in any way, "we could at least _try_ and help the people. Now we can't do _anything_."

She had eaten about a dozen people when she doubled over, clutching her gut. She threw up everything in her stomach. Then she repeated the whole process over and over again: eating about a dozen people and then throwing everything back up.

I didn't have much of a chance to think it through as to why she was doing that. Two of the Autobots, Ratchet and Bumblebee, generated an electromagnetic pulse. The golden shockwave swept all over the lake, and a little bit further.

So _that _why the general had told us to power down; The EMP shockwave knocked out all the electrical equipment it touched, including the bogie.

She just fell over, not making a noise or anything, just fell to the ground. People started gathering around cautiously, poking her, testing to see if she would move. She didn't move at all, so I guessed she had been knocked out by the EMP blast.

They called in 4 Chinooks, which lowered chains. Guys attached them to each extremity (ie wrists and ankles) and the Chooks gently lifted her into the air. The Chooks then flew off in the direction of our Air Force base, going _chook, chook, chook_ all the way there. There were dozens of guys starting up their vehicles and aircraft and moving out. Our job was done so I assumed that the rest of us were supposed to go back to our respective bases.

I started up the Comanche and took off, following the Chooks back to the base.

oOo

**Armageddon's POV**

Finally, I could see an end to the darkness. I welcomed the light and warmth as it enveloped me, and I woke for what felt like the first time in years.

I opened my eyes.

I couldn't move my body. All I could move was my eyes and mouth. My hands were in cuffs. Then I noticed that they were black and metal... I was the black creature! The terrible thing which had caused so much damage! The monster from my nightmares!

I was propped up on the wall inside what looked like an aircraft hanger… without the aircraft. There was a huge blue and red robot (although, he was probably the same height as me), with its arms crossed over its chest, its eyes narrowed at me. This guy looked pissed off.

"Who are you?"

"My full name is Acheron Vitus Pittman, but just call me Acheron." I answered.

"Why'd you do it?"

"Do what?" I asked, "And who the hell are you? _What _are you? Where am I? When is it? What the hell is going on here? Did I miss something?"

He looked at me like he too was confused, "I'm Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots. You're in an Air Force base near Detroit, the year 2058—"

"_WHAT?!_" I shrieked. Oh crap, I was freaking out, "Last thing I remember, I was at high school, Canberra, Australia_, right at the start of 2007! _I had just been introduced to Spectre Hailstrom, whose nickname is Grim Reaper, by a friend. We were thinking of a nickname for me, then Spectre said 'Oh, what about..." then it all went black! Are you trying to tell me that I forgot the past 51 years of my life and I'm _still the same age?!_"

_And you are who exactly?_

_Great, now I got voices in my head._

_No, just one. I'm Chatterbox._

_I think I'm Acheron, but I'm really not sure about _anything _anymore._

_Perfect._

_A/N: ok, I **know** I have an American fan - traffic. You know who you are, and thank you heaps! :D Why haven't you reviewed yet? What I don't get is heaps of you are skipping chapters, so I have the strangest feeling that you wouldn't understand what's going on. But thanks, anyway. Could someone explain that to me, cuz it's kinda annoying not knowing._

_Also, a big general welcome to everyone who reads this. You've all been really awesome! But I just wanna know what you think. Good? Bad? Craptacular? What in hell's name have you been smoking? Anything, the only exception being senseless flames, is most welcome. _


	14. The Ratchet Chapter

Chapter 13 – The Ratchet Chapter...

20 Good Reasons  
By Thirsty Merc

_And at that point,  
__There was no pain,  
__There was no sky,  
__There was no rain.  
__For all there was,  
__Was you,  
__And your sweet face._

**Armage****— er... Acheron's POV**

Optimus stared at me, opened mouthed. Apparently he was just as surprised as I was. He sent a message to someone called Ratchet to come here.

"Who's this Ratchet guy?" I asked.

"He's the medic," Optimus answered, "one of the best, actually."

We waited about a minutes before the doors to the hanger and a red and white robot walked in, Ratchet. He looked older than Optimus, way older. He clanged them shut behind him and came over to us, asking Optimus, "What's the problem?"

"She's forgotten everything that's happened involving us," Optimus stated, "the last thing she remembers is early 2007, when she was first introduced to Grim."

Ratchet stiffened, shuttering his optics (I think that's their term for eyes) briefly, as if trying to keep an old memory at bay. Then he said to Optimus, "I'll have to have a look at her CPU, see what caused it and how I could fix it," before kneeling next to me, a device appearing out of his lower left arm and said to me, "This is an electromagnetic pulse generator. I'm going to put you out for a while so I can have a look in your CPU and see what's going on."

I nodded. What was a CPU? Must be some kind of robot brain. The device emitted a wide, golden beam and I blacked out.

oOo

I woke up some time later. My internal chronometer told me that I had lost 2 hours. My CPU had downloaded all the robots' terms for stuff. Well, they were Transformers, TFs for short.

I on-lined my optics and saw the grim face of Ratchet. He looked like someone had died, someone close. I swear I saw tear trails, but I couldn't be sure.

"Ratchet? What's wrong?"

He looked away, as if contemplating whether to tell me or not. He sat beside me with his back to the wall. Finally he stated, "I found something, maybe what made you forget."

"You did?"

"It's called a Black Chip II."

"What's that?"

He swallowed and said sadly, "A Black Chip is a controlling mechanism. It has a wireless connection from the host, in this case you, to whoever planted it. It is impossible to remove them without killing the host. They can override your CPU for a period of time and make you do terrible things. This one malfunctioned and repeated the order to empty your fuel tanks to feed. You were evidently under the influence of the Chip when you... when you..." he trailed off.

"What did I do?" I demanded.

He was silent for a moment, then said, "You... ate humans alive. Over 500 of them."

My jaw dropped, my optics widened, and horror filled me. What?! That was foul! I would _never _do that! Although, whoever was at the other end of the Chip connection obviously would.

He looked at my stasis cuffs and said, "I can't stand to see you in those, now that I know why you did what you did." He removed them. Being able to feel my body and move again felt great.

I opened my arms and asked, "Hug me?"

He embraced me and I felt all of my emotional barriers crumble to dust. I clung to him like everything would vanish if I let go, letting myself sob violently. I buried my face into the curve of his neck, the tears streaming down my face. He held me to his chest, rubbing my back.

"I'm a freak!" I moaned, "I killed all those innocents! How can I forgive myself? How can anyone forgive me? I should just die now and face my eternal punishment before I do anything worse… please kill me, Ratchet."

He held me closer, "No, you don't deserve that. No-one does. We can fix this—"

"No you can't!" I cried, "You just said it yourself: 'it's impossible to remove the Chip without killing the host'. It's better for me to die than anyone else."

"Acheron—"

"Just do it! You know there's no other way!" I pulled away just enough to look him in the optics with my arms still around his neck and said softly, "Please Ratchet. I don't want anyone else to get hurt and neither do you."

He must've seen the pained look in my optics. He was silent for a moment, mulling it over in his CPU. Then he said, "I don't want to, I really don't want to, but I will, only because I have to."

I leaned my forehead against his and shuttered my optics in relief. Soon my pain would be over. My lips briefly brushed against his. I was surprised to find that they were soft, sinfully so.

I wanted to double check, to see if I was imagining things. I kissed him, very quickly. I wasn't imagining anything; his lips were soft as velvet and sweet as honey. My first kiss, well, as far as I knew anyway.

_(Whoa! Lots of fun. Give me a bell if you wanna read ;) Time skip!)_

His chest plates slid aside and revealed a beautiful crimson spark with white snaking across it.

I was stunned. It was… "So beautiful…" I whispered, gently stroking it.

He screamed again and his arms gave way. He collapsed on top of me. We would've bonded if my hand wasn't there, the only thing between our sparks. He had gone into overload, so he was unconscious. My hand was curled up slightly, so the fingertips, which were nasty claws, were digging into my spark, tearing holes in it.

I screamed in utter agony. I couldn't move; his body was blocking me from any movement. I couldn't stop screaming, the pain was unbearable. I could feel my life draining away, darkness clawing at the edges of my vision. Tears started streaming down my face. I didn't want to die this way, although I wasn't scared of death. Seriously, who died like _this_?

I heard someone bashing on the doors and screamed for help. The door burst open and Bulkhead came rushing in. I screamed louder, as Ratchet jerked in his state of unconsciousness and my claws were wrenched to the side, effectively tearing my spark.

I saw Ratchet come on-line and his cry of anguish before the darkness enveloped me.

**A/N: Yeah... when my friends read this, they were mentally scarred for life. Now, whenever I say "**_**Ratchet...**_**" they either shudder or run around in little circles, screaming their heads off.**

**As you can see, I have a sick and twisted mind. Review! Who wants to read the gap? Heh, heh, heh...**


	15. Jazz

Chapter 14 – Jazz

With you  
By Linkin Park

_Even though you're so close to me,  
__You're still so distant,  
__And I can't bring you back._

**Grim Reaper's POV**

The Decepticon army had arrived on Earth in the city of Pontiac.

It was a battlefield. With bullets flying everywhere, the clang of steel on steel all around, and the earth was soaked with energon. The Air Force were helping us, though the earthen technology was having difficulty destroying the elite 'Con forces.

It was us versus the Decepticons, Armageddon and Starscream were fighting side by side, slowly making their way through the dirt-filled air to get the Megatron, their ultimate goal. Prowl was fighting off three 'Cons at once. But I couldn't see anyone else. The only thing I could see was Soundwave. Neither of us was moving, it was a battle of the minds here. He winced, I could feel the raw power of his mind, probably much stronger than the force of my own. But that wouldn't stop me, no way, probability wasn't a factor when it came to me. I pushed the barrier a little further, he winced again, I felt his weakness, I felt his pain, I pushed it further, his hands flew up to his head and he was clutching his temples.

I smiled, shifting my right arm into a bazooka, now that I had him down I could finally paralyse him. I aimed my weapon and fired, shooting him right through the middle. He fell backwards and landed on the ground with a thump, sparks flying in the empty cavity in his chest.

I looked around in hope of seeing Jazz, I spotted him quickly, he was standing in front of Megatron. I started walking over when I noticed something was wrong. He was standing awfully still, and Megatron was smiling. A feeling of dread settled in the bottom of my stomach and I started running, breaking into a sprint quickly.

A long, steel sword was protruding from his back, covered in energon, it rotated slowly, then slid back out, another 'Con fired two bullets into the back of Jazz's head and his body collapsed to the ground with a sickening thud.

I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me, a ton of bricks whacking me in the chest. Megatron smiled and walked off, his work was finished. I realised I was running when the ground was flying beneath my feet, I felt empty, like a great big hole had been ripped open in my chest, I felt like screaming, like crying and mourning. I reached him and I kneeled beside Jazz's lifeless body.

_He can't be dead! He can't be!_ I gave a weak push on his chest, trying to get a response out of him, there was no movement. I was shaking, my breaths came in weak, ragged gasps. _Not Jazz! No! _I pushed on his chest again, leaning my head on it, trying to hear his spark. Liquid covered one side of my face and I realised with horror that it was his energon.

Rage and sadness boiled inside me, welling up and bubbling over, I saw red. I stood up slowly, turning around, I saw a big, red X on Megatron's back. He would die. _You will be avenged, my love…_ I concentrated and he stopped walking, paralysed. I walked over to him, stepping in front of him and looking him straight in the optics. A flash of fear briefly crossed his optics but he maintained his calm expression.

"What do you want, slagger?" I felt like I was going to explode, rage coursed through every limb, every circuit, every part of me, I wanted to kill him so badly. _But I will make him suffer first, oh, and he will suffer…_

I gave him a hard shove and he fell to the ground, he still couldn't move so he lay there, staring at me like I was crazy, I snickered, _oh, I bet he wished I was crazy, he wouldn't have to suffer then…_

_What is she doing?_ I heard him think, I laughed, sliding my scythe out from behind my shoulder blade. I pressed it softly against his neck and it slid a few inches in. He coughed and spluttered as energron spurted out, like a miniature fountain. I grinned, this was going to be fun. I pressed it a little further in, it hit something hard. His spine. My smile grew even larger, I pushed it really hard and a loud snap sounded, making my spark shudder. Energon squirted again and his optics went dull. _Damn, a little too quickly._

I shifted my right arm into a bazooka and shot his spark chamber, reassuring no return. I wrenched my scythe out, wiping it on the ground and holding it firm in my hand, stepping away from the corpse. A few Decepticons came closer to see what happened and I shot them through, slicing off the head of one in one quick sweep. My anger only built up, I was numb to all other emotion, all pain and feeling had long since left me. There was only one thing I wanted now.

Energon.

Energon from every god-forsaken Decepticon alive, I wanted them all to die, and all of them would. I marched over to the 'Con Echo was fighting and shot him in the back. Echo gave me a confused look and decided to follow me, but I didn't even notice. I walked over to the next nearest one and sliced him right through the middle from the shoulder to the hip. He crumpled to the ground in a pool of energon, _if Jazz doesn't deserve to live, then no one does_. I shot three, stabbed and hacked another four and off-lined several more, Echo following intently behind me all the while. When all the Decepticons were dead I felt empty, devoid of all emotion. All the rage and anger and hatred in me had burned out, and only a deep, burning sadness was left.

I dropped the head of the last Decepticon and crumpled to my knees, and for the first time in what seemed like years, I cried.

I was one of the very few Transformers alive who had tear ducts. Perhaps it's because I used to be human.

The tears streamed down my cheeks, around my fingers and dripping onto my knees, soaking the earth beneath me. I didn't want anyone to see me right then, especially not one of my friends, I didn't want them to see me weak. I can't stand feeling weak, I can't stand letting anyone see my emotions. I tried to stop crying but I couldn't. He was everything! The one thing I looked forward to in this cursed life. After everything was over, even after all my friends were dead, he was going to be my lifeboat, and we would escape, we would escape together from the world and all existence itself. No one would know we were still alive, we would just have each other, and I thought we would be happy. But now, everything, all my plans and hopes for the future, their all gone, all by the hand of Megatron. Even though I killed Megatron, there's still no way to bring him back.

The tears kept streaming down my face, I had no control over myself, I was broken. Full of hatred and self-loathing. Was there anything I could have done to save him? I shouldn't have wasted my time on that slagger Soundwave. Then he might have been still alive now.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up to find Echo kneeling down beside me, he put his arm around my shoulders awkwardly and pulled me into his chest, rubbing my arm. I didn't have the strength nor the willpower to push him away.

"H-he's gone…" I whispered shakily.

"Who is?" he murmured.

"Jazz!" I cried, burying my face in his chest as he hugged me, I felt like a little child as he rocked me from side to side and hushed me, whispering soothing words into my audio receptors. In a sick way, this reminded me of a song by My Chemical Romance.

"…_never again, no never again, they gave us two shots to the back of the head. And we're all…dead…now…_"

Echo looked at me confusedly but otherwise kept quiet. The last line of the song was echoing ('scuse the pun) through my head.

…_and we're all dead now…_

I know we all will be, and I know I will be, because what do you live for when there's no future to look forward to?

I felt empty, like a great black hole had opened inside of me and sucked the life out from the inside. There was nothing left, absolutely nothing. Except the pain, that was all there was left, I was numb to the world and all my friends and everything – I couldn't even feel Echo sitting next to me, holding me together in one piece – there was only me and my pain. Nothing else mattered now, not life, not anything.

Jazz was everything. With him gone, nothing felt real. Everything was gone with that stab and two shots to the head. I felt like I hadn't grasped fully on the reality of the moment yet, it wasn't real yet, it just couldn't be real, Jazz couldn't be dead, not just like that. This was just a dream, a very bad dream, and all I had to do was wake up, I'm sure of it. But a feeling of dread and sheer terror that had made itself home in the pit of my stomach told me otherwise.

I wasn't whole anymore, I felt like I was in pieces, Echo holding me together physically, but emotionally, I felt shattered. Although, I _knew_ that Jazz must be dead, as my spark felt non-existent now. I wasn't ready to accept that, not yet.

Damn, death sounds so good right now. Or is this death? Had all my sins turned me to this? Eternal damnation without Jazz. I didn't want to look at his body, I didn't want any more proof.

A gut-wrenching feeling came over me as I realised something else made it real. I pulled my face away from Echo's chest, and stared in horror at the energon on it, it wasn't his, and it wasn't mine.

It was Jazz's.

I looked down at my hands and stifled a scream, it was all over them as well. It was so thick that is was running down my arm, dripping into the sodden earth. My optics widened and so did Echo's. He probably thought I murdered Jazz. But then again, I didn't care what he thought, I didn't care what anyone thought anymore. I just want it all to be over.

Then something else occurred to me. I could make it over, I could make it all go away…

I looked around, my scythe was still on the ground, dried energon of the many lives I'd taken with it. I crawled over to it, Echo's optics watching me intently. I picked it up, feeling like a baby playing with sharp objects and in one swift movement I held it to my throat, pushing it in, it quickly slid a more than few inches in. I coughed and spluttered, my airways now being cut open, making it harder to breathe. My breath came out in weak, ragged gasps and I felt my spark whirring in my audio receptors.

I heard two others nearby, one choked and one gasped. I looked around, the blade falling out of my neck, leaking energon all over my knees, but I didn't notice, I couldn't feel anything anymore. I saw Echo, he was making his way over to me, his face full of shock and worry, and behind him, Armageddon, who looked seemingly paralysed, but not by my hand. I realised she had never seen me like this before, she had never seen me this…_pathetic_. The tears started all over again, like a fountain they streamed down my face, my cheeks, mixing with the energon on the ground, making the puddle larger.

I suddenly felt extremely ashamed of myself, how could I be so reckless as to let one of my friends see me so weak!? That was the one thing I strived to keep hidden all my life! And to just let my weaknesses show like that all of a sudden, of course it would shock her, hell, she and all the others probably thought I had no emotions. I hated myself then, I hated myself so much, for letting her see that, for letting her worry.

_For not saving Jazz…_

I shot her an apologetic look and made to pick up my scythe again, it was centimetres from my neck when a hand appeared on it, restraining me from putting it any closer. I looked up into Echo's optics, burning into mine.

"Let go!" I screamed at him, my voice faltering. I saw him hesitate, but eventually shook his head. "Let go! Please!" I repeated, but his response was the same. The tears kept streaming down my face, and I could feel the look of torture emanating from my optics. "Get off me! Now! Let me go!" I began to struggle in his grip, trying to tear my blade away from his hands, but went unsuccessful.

I caught his gaze for one brief moment and he met mine, a pained expression flashed across his face and he pulled the scythe out of my hands, discarding it on the ground behind him and pulled me into a hug again. I sobbed and choked and cried, hating myself now more than ever. I wanted to kill myself. I still do. But I can't, is it because I'm too weak? Too selfish? Too scared? Why? Why are the fates so cruel to me?! They take away my life, my love, my everything, but I have to walk around in this living hell without him! Without my Jazz…

I suddenly felt light-headed, I hadn't realised how much energon I had lost. I looked down and to my surprise we were sitting in a large, dark coloured pool of energon. I felt sickened and disgusted at myself, and Echo was sitting in it too! He was sitting there on his knees, holding me in a puddle of my own energon. He didn't seem to notice it though. How the fuck was I still alive?

I should be long dead, damn it!

I stopped sobbing; the tears just slid quietly down my cheeks instead, and I stared emptily at the dark liquid beneath me. Disgusted. At myself, at fate, Echo, and Megatron. Megatron was dead now. That didn't matter. Jazz was dead too. That mattered. So why can't _I_ be dead and join him? Why can't _I_ have peace? Why do _they_ struggle to keep me alive? What do I matter anyway if I'm just going to be an emotionally crippled person who can't give two shits about life or anything else? I can't be their leader anymore. I am no longer qualified.

I started shaking and reached over Echo's shoulder, groping for the scythe. He slapped my hand and I retaliated out of shock.

"Stop it." He hissed. I shrunk back, feeling incredibly small, especially due to the fact that he was four times my size. He had barely said a word, and it frightened me that he was yelling now. "Just stop it! Ok? I'd hate to say this, but your acting extremely _pathetic_."

I stared at the ground, ashamed.

"I know." I blubbered, then started choking again, I wheezed, rasped and coughed. He had been hugging me while I was on my back, and the energon had started leaking in the wrong direction, back down my throat. He looked panicked.

I rolled over and leaned forward, my hand pressed to my throat, coughing up energon and leaking it at the same time. I gasped, but it wasn't because of the pain. I had rolled over and was now facing Jazz's body, I could see it clearly now, the energon leaking out of the back of his head, the hole in his spark chamber, his shuttered optics.

I screamed.

I screamed so loud that it hurt my own audio receptors, but I couldn't help it, this was the one thing I didn't want to see, the one thing I couldn't handle, the one thing in the world that would break apart the flimsy ties that I had been holding myself together with.

I screamed until it hurt my throat so badly that I started up another coughing fit. This one was worse, there was no break for me in between coughs to breathe. My light-headedness just lost ten pounds.

I shuttered my optics and I fell backwards, landing on the sodden earth with a thud. Blackness clawed at the edges of my vision, I saw two heads, one seemed like Echo's and the other…I think…I think it was Ratchets, his brow was furrowed in thought.

The blackness took over, but the last thing I heard was Ratchet's thoughts. He wasn't sure whether or not he could fix me. _I hope he can't, I don't want to wake up to see that white ceiling again, not again. I don't want to wake up at all._

_Don't let me._

oOo

I unshuttered my optics and found myself staring at an all too familiar white ceiling. I groaned and rolled over, praying that I would go back into recharge before anyone noticed I woke.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and knew my cover was blown. I unshuttered my optics to find Echo staring at me intently. He was good at that.

"How are you feeling?" he asked slowly. I sighed,

"Fine, I guess, just a bit of a sore throat, I guess. But that's what happens when you--"

"I meant, how are you _feeling_?" I quickly understood what he said this time.

"Terrible." Whatever glimpse of hope in his optics quickly faded. I continued, "Terrible that I reacted that way, and worried and scared you and--" I choked, unable to finish my sentence. _Armageddon…_

He sighed and sat down on the healing berth beside me and pulled me into a hug. I could tell he was going to make a habit out of this.

But even as he was hugging me, I felt empty, devoid of all emotion. This emptiness, I hated it. I didn't hate many things in life. I never hated people, or at least I tried hard not to if they gave me reason to. I hated hate. If was a horrible, dirty feeling. But now I hated myself as well. I hate myself so much.

A small tear rolled down my cheek, I lifted up my finger and wiped it off. No room for those any more.

Echo didn't seem to notice. He slowly released me, and sat back on the bed. _Why does he care anyway?_ It puzzled me so, _Why does he do this?_

There was a knock at the door and Echo stood up and opened it. Why did I suddenly feel like I had a disease or something that left me incapable of opening a door?

It was Ratchet, he seemed distant and worried. Was there something he wasn't telling me?

"Grim? You ok?" he asked.

I sighed, what was everyone's problem? Do they think I'm unstable now or something? Just because I tried killing myself…do they think I'm going to do it again? Well, I probably would anyway, but I'm not dangerous! I don't need to be kept under watch and guard just in case I try some other move to end my life.

"Yeah." I grumbled, not meeting his azure optics. Why was I so pissed all of a sudden? Did I have no control over my emotions anymore? Personally, I would prefer to have that awful empty feeling than be pissed of upset for no reason.

He nodded once, sensing that I wanted to be left alone for a while, but there was no emotion in his face.

"Echo, I need your help in my lab." He didn't budge. He gave him a look and he followed him out.

Once they had left the room I slammed my fists on the wall. I was so angry with myself! I couldn't believe what I was turning into. What _was_ I turning into? It was like my pre-teen years coming back to haunt me. I sat on my hands to stop myself from doing anything I would regret. I felt the heat drain out of my face, and with it, the anger and confusion.

I embraced the empty feeling that soon washed over me. Was this what they called meditation? I felt completely calm, at ease, but empty in a way. I took in deep breaths, wincing when the wind rubbed on the raw part of my throat, and soon found myself falling into recharge again.


	16. Institutionalized

Chapter 15 – Institutionalized

Institutionalized  
By Suicidal Tendencies

_I'm not crazy – institutionalized,  
You're the one who's crazy – institutionalized,  
You're driving me crazy – institutionalized.  
They stuck me in an institution, _

_Said it was the only solution.  
To give me the needed professional help,  
__To protect me from the enemy, myself.  
__  
Doesn't matter, I'll probably get hit by a car anyways._

**Grim's POV**

I was sitting on the recharge bed in Med Bay. It had been a week and they still hadn't let me out yet. I wasn't sure whether it was that they didn't trust me yet or something else entirely. But it seemed like a prison cell. Ratchet rarely came in any more either. Was I really that unstable? Dangerous? What did they think I was? A traitor? What did I do that affected them so much? I only received rare visits from Armageddon, and that was later in the week, as she had almost been destroyed when the stupid Air Force mistook her for a 'Con. Her body was scrapped beyond repair just after I had blacked out, and her spark had only _just _made it. Ratchet had worked hard to create another body, one which needed a new alt mode. Now she was an f-117 Nighthawk.

When she had walked in for the first time in her new body with Ratchet at her side, and when he had explained, I nearly went Black, but I didn't. I guess it was just Armageddon; I had come close to going Black several times in the past, but her presence just seemed to calm me down, though I'm not quite sure why.

Black is a state of extreme rage, when the negative feelings and emotions build up inside me until something makes me snap. I lose control completely and could kill a person if it is bad enough. When the rage is spent, I become something like an emotionless shell, until the feeling slowly starts coming back.

But I could tell there was something they weren't telling me...

I wouldn't count Echo as a visitor, since he was there every other waking minute of the day and night. I'm not sure if he ever left Med Bay, he was always there whenever I woke, sitting in the corner faithfully. He was always there when I dreamed of Jazz or things were just too much for me to handle. He would always hug me and cradle me in his chest, and I would find comfort in that, knowing I had someone there for me. Someone who would be here just for me and no one else, or really, I was there for him, in a way, since I was never comforting him, or whispering soothing words to him, or any of the things he does for me. Would it be wrong if I said it felt like I belonged to Echo? Or if I said I felt like he belonged to me? He was like my faithful shadow, always there for me. More appropriately he was like my echo, always there whenever I called.

…_My Echo…_

Echo had his arm around my shoulders, my head was again resting on his chest. I had just overcome another bout of waterworks. I sniffed, staring distantly at the white wall that was in front of me. Something suddenly clicked. I was surprised it had taken me a week to work this out, but then again, most of the time I spent in recharge or crying.

"Echo?" I choked, it felt strange to talk. I hadn't spoken in days.

'_Yes?_' he thought, he knew by now, from spending so much time with me, that I could hear his thoughts; read his mind. He shifted his gaze to me, his optics burning into mine, but today they weren't burning like they usually would though, they were more like softly glowing embers. He was holding something back, something was troubling him. I tried clearing my throat, a form of metallic scab had formed on this inside and it made it a little difficult to speak clearly.

"Are they keeping you in here too?" I rasped.

'_No._'

I could feel the confusion on my face. "So you can come and go freely as you wish?"

'_Yeah, what are you getting at?_'

"Why don't you leave? Why do you stay then?"

He laughed out loud. "Because I want to stay, I do leave sometimes, to get something to eat."

"Where do you recharge?"

'_On the floor_'

"What?!" I choked, then started actually choking. I must have dislodged a piece of the scab, because I could feel the warm liquid flowing down my throat again. I choked and coughed up a tiny piece of crumpled looking, silver metal. I stood, and wobbled over to the corner, and coughed up a spray of energon on the wall. Echo shot off the bed and was by my side in an instant, rubbing my back and holding me so I didn't fall over.

…_My Echo…_

My coughing ceased and we went back over to the bed, sitting down again, Echo's arm never left my side.

"Have you heard anything from Ratchet?" I said after a while in silence, staring at the no-longer-completely-white wall. He hesitated, before finally nodding.

"Am I…" I paused, thinking of how to word this so that it didn't upset him too much. "…Am I going to make it out of this?" he gave me a confused look, I sighed, it looked like I was just going to have to put it bluntly. "Am I dying Echo?" he held his breath for a moment, obviously thinking of how to word it delicately. "No sugar-coated-crap please," I said bluntly, "I just need to know what's going on."

He paused for a moment, then decided to tell me, because I would be able to find out anyway, if I decided to read his mind. It was annoying having no secrets kept from you. "Well…Your throat…wasn't the only thing damaged. You had internal damaging as well…to the CPU. It seems Soundwave left you a parting present." He grimaced.

"How bad is it?"

"Well, let's say all these mood swings you've been having weren't just a passing fancy. And in case you had forgotten you don't get PMS any more. If you get a mood swing bad enough, it could potentially kill you." Everything suddenly made sense!_ This is why I had been crying so much, and gotten so angry lately_, "It seems, though, it didn't fully come into effect until after we brought you back here." _So my suicide act was just me…nothing else but my own self…_

"Am I going to die?" I asked quietly, still trying to piece together all the information I had received.

"Well, Ratchet is working on a program…for some nano-bots. He will put inject them into your system and they should automatically repair any damage to your system. Including your throat hopefully. But…your condition will continue to deteriorate until he can get the program finished." So that made sense, why Ratchet never came and checked up on me. He already knew I was dying so he didn't need to. It was last resort measures.

"So why couldn't I just stay in my own room? Why did he have to keep me here?"

"He wanted to keep an eye on your vital signs." He motioned towards several sticky pads on my arms, legs and neck. This was 2058 so they were a little different to the ones fifty years ago where the sticky-pads had wires on them and were connected to a machine, to monitor your vitals, in hospitals and stuff. These were wireless. I understood everything now, everything made sense, finally. Except one thing.

"So why are _you_ here?"

"Ratchet needed someone to keep an eye on you." He said casually, but I could tell something was up.

"Couldn't Ratchet have kept an eye on me himself?" I motioned towards a security camera in the top right corner of the room.

"Yes, I guess. But he needed someone to look after you. You would get pretty stressed out if you woke up and started crying only to find you were alone, wouldn't you now?"

"_He_ needed? Ratchet doesn't need you to look after me. Ratchet doesn't understand female emotions._ I_ need you to look after me."

"Exactly."

There was a slight pause afterwards. I looked up at him, (damn his excessive height) raising an optic ridge.

"There's more isn't there?" I asked quietly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He kept his optics fixed on the wall.

"Yes you do. You'd better tell me before I find out for myself."

"I _want _to stay here."

"I think we've already covered that. But _why_?" He sighed, pulling me into his chest, wrapping his arms around me, he leaned his head on mine. I shuttered my optics and relaxed into his chest.

"You have no idea how good this feels." He sighed.

"Don't I?" I whispered. I shifted in his arms so that I was facing him, and wrapped my arms around him, resting my head on his chest again.

I froze up, suddenly remembering something. The last person who held me like this was Jazz. Tears stung behind my optics and I shuttered them, fighting them back. I squeezed Echo harder, trying to take an edge off the pain, but it bit deeper than that. Had I betrayed him? It sure as hell felt like it, even though he was... I couldn't even think the word.

I wrenched myself out of Echo's grasp and flung myself across the room, staring at him with wide, terrified optics. He gave me a confused look and I ran towards the door, pulling hard on the handle. He was by my side in an instant, thinking this was just another of my mood swings.

He tried pulling me into another of his infinite hugs, but I pushed him away and screamed at him. "Let me go! Get off me!!"

He crushed me into his chest in an attempt to calm me down, I sobbed and cried, unable to escape.

"I-I don't want to betray him…" I choked amidst tears.

"Betray who?" he murmured quietly, he still thought this was because of my mental damage. I admit the theatrics would have been amplified a little but I still had a little control over myself, I actually knew why I was upset this time.

"Jazz." I winced. Images came flooding back to me, the sword sliding out of his body, the two squirts of energon flying out of the back of his head, his body crumpling to the ground. "No! I won't!"

I broke out of his grasp and kicked down the door, putting as much force as I could behind it. I bounded out of the Med Bay and ran down the corridor, Echo following quickly behind me. His longer legs kept him at a good speed, but I never forgot for a second that I was the fastest TF alive. I looked behind me, he wasn't far behind, I felt my spark shudder, for a moment I felt terrified of him.

I snapped my head around and pushed myself faster, running right out of the base. He was still chasing me. What was with him? Couldn't he just leave me alone?

I skidded to a halt when I saw Prowl standing in front of me. I whirled around but he was standing there as well. What the frag? Suddenly there was a sharp pain in the back of my leg, I looked down and saw a shuriken sticking out of my calf and my leg gave way beneath me. I was just about to get re-acquainted with the ground when a set of strong arms caught me. I looked up into Echo's optics and sighed. If I didn't feel like a prisoner before, I sure as hell did now. Except prisoners didn't have kind, caring wardens like Echo.

Echo picked me up and carried me bridal-style along the corridors back to my cell, err, the Med Bay, since I could no longer walk properly. I was surprised at how strong he was actually. But I guess that came with the height and the speed and the good looks…

Wait. WHAT?!

Did I just think what I think I was just thinking? No. No, no, no, no, NO! I can't be falling for Echo! No, I can't! I just tried to escape from the Autobot base just to get away from him and now I think he's hot! Ugh! See, this is why I hate me sometimes… Oh great, now I'm having a conversation to myself about my love life. Wow, not only do I feel crazy but I feel like my own mother. Echo looked down at my confused and slightly annoyed expression and chuckled.

"Having conversations with yourself again?"

"Wouldn't you like to know…" I grumbled, "Wait, what do you mean 'again'? Is it that obvious when I'm talking to myself in my head that you can tell I'm having my own little conversation? Or did some of my mind-reading abilities rub off on you from spending too much time around a mentally deranged person?"

He laughed again, I've never seen him so…exuberant… "None of the above, I just guessed. And you just admitted to having conversations with yourself." He grinned.

"I admit nothing. And there's nothing wrong with having an argument with yourself, it's just when you lose that argument you should start worrying." He chuckled, since when was I so funny to _him_? "What's got you so high? Most guys would be a little upset that a chick just ran in terror from them, but you take joy from it and you're calling _me_ crazy…"

He grinned again, "Because…you were worried about betraying Jazz, which meant you actually felt something towards me to ignite that feeling, where as if I was _just_ your best friend, you wouldn't feel the need to protect your innocence." I felt my cheek plates growing hot. Dang, now I felt stupid. He had figured my emotions out before I did. "That and the fact that I'm just going to have to try harder." He smirked. I remained silent, though.

When we had reached the Med Bay he took me through the now permanently open doorway, which Ratchet was staring dismally at, as he was to one who was charged with fixing it. The door had been ripped completely off its hinges and was bent around a large dent in the middle, which was coincidentally the shape of my foot. Damn, I must have kicked it hard.

Echo lay me down on the recharge bed and sat next to me, when Ratchet left to get some tools to fix the door he turned to me and asked me a question no one had asked me in a very, very long time.

"I know you're nick name is Grim Reaper, but…I can't help but wonder, what sort of human parent would name their child Grim? What is your real name?" I realised I hadn't even told Jazz that, not because I was hiding my name, just because over the years I had gotten so used to people calling me Grim, I had treated that as my real name. That and he never asked. No one ever did.

I hesitated, for a moment nearly forgetting my own name.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to…"

"No, it's not that, it's just that…well, no one has asked me that in a long time to I guess…well, it sounds silly but, I nearly forgot my own name."

"Do you remember it now?" he asked, a hint of humour in his tone.

"Yes!" I snapped, jokingly, "It's a little strange okay? My full name is Spectre Felicity Vira Hailstrom.

"Well that's a mouthful." He commented.

"I don't remember my parents, and all I remember is my aunt telling me that my mother had seen a ghost in the hospital when I was born…she said it was the ghost of my ancestor, because the spirit looked a lot like me, had my eyes, my chin, and so she was inspired to call me Spectre, after that experience. The teasing I received…most believed my mother was crazy…that was before she threw herself of the building she worked in. I was 3 then."

"I'm sorry." He said quietly.

"Don't worry about it." I said unemotionally, "Can't help what's already dead." I froze up, what did that remind me of?

'_If_ _only she felt the same about Jazz…_' I heard him think bitterly. I gave him a look of shock and confusion. He suddenly realised what I had heard and gasped.

"Oh! No! That's not what I meant! I'm sorry!" I ignored him, I didn't want to hear it. I felt a couple of tears slide down my face but nothing close to the usual waterworks.

"How long…" I asked, I was staring at the wall with the energon on it again; my voice was hard and emotionless.

"What?"

"How long until Ratchet finishes the program?"

"Two more days, at least." I sighed, I was sick of this stupid emotional rollercoaster. I wasn't angry with Echo. I knew he was right. I couldn't mourn over Jazz forever. I couldn't stay faithful to someone who wasn't even alive anymore. I felt Echo's arms around me, pulling me into a hug. I didn't try to escape this time. I rested my head again on his solid chest. He was probably the only one in this whole base that didn't think I was crazy. And then here I was using him like a tissue; always at my disposal. I shifted myself around in his arms so that I was straddling his lap and I wrapped my arms around him, pulling his body towards me in a tight hug.

"Thank you." I whispered, a couple more tears escaping my optics.

"What for?" he murmured quietly.

"Just being here for me, thanks." I whispered back, "I don't think I would have survived this without you. If there's any way I can repay you…"

"Well, there is one way…" I could hear the smile behind his voice. I pulled away so I could look him in the face, suspicion creeping over me.

"And what's that?"

He tapped his cheek with a mischievous smile, indicating what he wanted. I hesitated, then sighed and leaned forward, repeating in my mind that it was _only_ on the cheek like a mantra. My lips were about to connect with his cheek when he spun his face around so that they connected with his lips, sending shock surging through my body and I pulled backwards quickly.

"Can't blame me for trying" he shrugged, a smile still on his face.

"Yes. Yes, I can."

He sighed, "You could loosen up a little, then it would be easier for both of us. I'm not going to give up, you realise."

"I know, but my boyfriend only just died a week ago and you're expecting me to _kiss_ you?"

"I _expect_ nothing." He said simply, '_just hope_…' I heard him think. Is he doing that on purpose or does he just _forget_ that I can hear his thoughts?

He laughed when I made a face and I slid off his lap. Now it just felt awkward.

"I can see this is going to take time." He said, a hint of regret in his voice.

I lay back down on the recharge bed and he got the message, slipping off and taking his seat in the corner of the room.

I shuttered my optics and tried to imagine what life would be like right now if Jazz were here. I would have actually kissed him for one thing. I imagined everything that had happened so far, with one small difference, every time Echo came into my memories I replaced him with Jazz. I imagined me kissing Jazz for the last time and I smiled. But then the image of Jazz started to fade away and I found myself staring at an image of me kissing Echo, _I wonder what that would be like… _My optics unshuttered themselves quickly and I shot upright. Echo looked over at me, worry spreading across his features.

That last thought was echoing through my head, bouncing around and stinging my audio receptors.

_I wonder what that would be like…_

Jazz wasn't around any more…he would _want_ me to be happy, right?

"Echo? Could you come here for a sec…" he stood and came over, sitting next to me on the recharge bed.

"What is it?"

"I-I just want to try something…" I murmured shakily. He gave me a confused look and I cupped his cheek in my hand, pulling his face slowly closer to mine. He got the message and shuttered his optics, I did the same and my whole body was wracked with tingles when his lips met mine in a friendly, but passionate, how-do-you-do.

I felt his lips moving slowly, softly against mine, I marvelled at the sensation. Why did it feel _so right_ when it was supposed to be _so wrong_? There was an urge deep within me for more, I wanted more from him, it was insane and crazy and I didn't even know why or where it was coming from. I guess it must have built up over time, without Jazz around, I guess I just needed someone else to love me, love, such a strange, fickle thing. Something of which I apparently cannot survive without. I deepened the kiss, and he went with it happily. He pulled me onto his lap and I turned my body so that I was facing his, my legs straddling his lap. I could tell he was enjoying this, he was finally getting what he wanted, and for once I wasn't so reluctant about it. I wrapped my arms around his neck allowing no escape, but somehow I could tell he wasn't _going_ anywhere even if he _could_ escape. I felt his arms circle around my waist and he gently pulled me closer to him, he didn't want to push me too far but he didn't know. He didn't know that _I did_. Time to give him a couple of hints.

I ran my glossa along his lower lip, begging entrance, he let me in and I explored him, every part of his mouth that I could reach, my glossa tangled with his and our mouths mashed into each other. Yet he was still reluctant to push me further. Damn, is it just me or is this boy _slow_ today? More hints.

I pulled my mouth away from his, desperate for a breather. He looked down into my optics, a warm smile spreading across his face, I melted. I pulled him into a tight hug, I felt every curve of me crush into him, yet I wanted to pull him tighter, I wanted him so close to me that he would never leave my side, not even for a second, I wouldn't be able to bear that. I didn't want to lose anyone else, I had already been through that grief once, and I don't think I would be able to survive it a second time.

"Satisfied?" his velvet voice broke through my thoughts. I didn't know what he meant until I remembered what the last thing I said was. _I just want to try something…wow, I must have sounded idiotic_.

"No" I breathed into his audio receptors, "Not yet. More." Was all I could say before I started dropping kisses along his jaw-line and up his cheeks. He finally got it! He finally put two and two together and got…well, four. The click was so obvious it was almost audible. All reluctance disappeared altogether and a mischievous smile spread across his face. _Yes!_

Suddenly I wasn't the one in control, suddenly he was the one making the moves and I was sitting back and enjoying the ride. He pressed his lips to the side of my neck right under my chin and I shivered with delight as he ran them up and down from just under my jaw to the crook of my neck. I felt my spark whirring faster and my breathing increased quickly when he went from the crook of my neck to where my collar bone would be. The top of his head pushed my chin up and I let my head fall back, I still had my arms wrapped around his neck and I sure as hell wasn't letting go now. His lips started dipping lower and lower. Then he stopped and pressed his head to my chest and listened to my spark whirring.

"Echo-"

"Shh!"

He seemed fascinated by the sound, engulfed in it. Only then did I realise something.

_Why was Ratchet taking so long?_

A hand slid its way up my neck and settled behind my head, pulling my face into his. Before I could deny him access his glossa snaked its way into my mouth, learning all the caves and indents and every tiny thing by memory. His other hand was still holding me by the small of my back and my arms were tangled behind his neck. I leaned backwards, pulling him down with me. He balanced out his weight around me, with his hands either side of my head and his knees either side of my hips. He stared down into my optics, his expression, or rather, the mix of expressions I could read in his optics swirling around like mist. Joy, eagerness, lust, mischief, warmth and one I felt like I hadn't seen in years. Love.

Love.

I felt like I could cry, just to know that I was loved again, by someone, it just made me feel…complete…

But something wasn't quite complete, I ached for more, I _wanted_ him, every part of him. I felt that it wasn't just selfish want, I _needed_ him. And I knew I _needed_ him now.

I moved my arms from behind his neck to a little lower down his back and gave a hard tug, making him fall on top of me, I wanted him as close as he could get. I crushed him into me in a tight hug but not tight enough to hurt him. I whispered into his audio receptor as I felt a tear roll down my face,

"Don't ever leave me. Please." I pleaded, my voice shuddering.

'_I won't, I promise._' He thought to me, and I knew he meant it.

"OH PRIMUS! THE SECOND TIME!! THIS IS THE SECOND TIME!!" someone screeched from the doorway, Echo rolled off of me, but sat by my side, he squeezed my hand to let me know he wasn't going anywhere. I sat up and saw Bumblebee standing in the (now permanently open) doorway, a look of horror and disgust on his face. "Twice today…Twice…" he whimpered, falling to his knees and banging his head on the doorframe, trying to rid himself of the images of us making out and God knows what else he'd seen.

"What are you rambling about, Bee?" Echo asked dryly, obviously pissed that shorty interrupted our -cough- together time. _Aww, how sweet…_

Bee stuck out his glossa in disgust. "Acheron and Ratchet were interfacing in the hanger at the Air Force base… it's a lot worse because, you know, Ratchet is sooo _old_…and then you two in here…at least Echo isn't like your grandpa." He muttered that last line before sulking off down the corridor.

_Ah, so that's what's been keeping Ratchet. Hah, I hope he had fun…_I thought teasingly.

I looked back at Echo after we regained some privacy. "Now, where were we?"

He raised an optic ridge suggestively, "Oh, I think I have an idea."

oOo

I wrapped my leg over him as my arms were locked behind his neck at he kissed me passionately, I groaned when he grinded his hips into mine, this was probably the best I had ever felt.

Suddenly Ratchet burst into the room, panting and shaking, he looked pale… like he had seen a ghost or something.

Echo wrenched his mouth from mine and shot Ratchet a look of annoyance. Obviously doors were compulsory if we were to have any privacy.

"Acheron is dead!" he wailed, I froze, before practically throwing Echo off me and leaping off the berth, grabbing Ratchet by the shoulders and lifting his off the ground a few inches.

"_What?_" I demanded menacingly. _This better be a joke, just some sick, twisted joke. Else the son of a bitch whose fault it is will die_.

"She's dead…" he sobbed.

"CAN'T YOU DO SOMETHING!?!" I screamed. I could feel the red clawing and the edges of my vision. _No, No I can do this calmly, I will __not__ go black. I can do this, just push it away, don't go black. __Fight it!_

"No…" he whispered. _Dammit! He is so __pathetic__!_ "Her…her spark, it's-it's broken"

I took in deep breaths, trying to stay calm. If I went black I would probably kill him, and that would do me no good.

"What. Do. You. Mean. It's. Broken?" I hissed, saying each word slowly and as calmly as I could, although I could feel my grip tightening on his shoulders.

"I mean it's torn! Damaged beyond repair! She's gone." The last two words struck home and felt like they echoed through my head, bouncing off the walls and resounding over and over again.

_She's gone…_

_She's gone…_

_She's gone…_

_She's gone…_

_She's really, truly gone…_

I started shaking, my breaths coming out in weak, ragged gasps, I dropped Ratchet to the floor and I felt like everything was slipping away from me, the room started turning sideways and I crumpled to my knees. Echo ran over and held my shoulders, shaking me gently and trying to pull me back to reality. The red started clawing at my vision again, almost like real claws, leaving scratches behind, which faded after a little bit, but then the claws would come back and tear open the wound a little more.

Echo's words suddenly came flying back to me.

_If you get a mood swing bad enough, it could potentially kill you…_

But I didn't care any more. I was going to die anyway, the damage had been done.

"Who did it? Whose fault was it?!" I yelled, the room started swaying even more, for a moment I was sure I saw two Ratchets.

"Mine…" he whispered, staring at the floor ashamedly. The red got even brighter, so much so that it stung my vision, so I shuttered my optics and breathed in deeply.

"Run. Run now." I said dangerously calmly, "Run as far away from this place as you can, because if I live through this, I promise I _will_ kill you. I will hunt you down and _kill_ you." My voice shuddered at that last sentence and I felt a sharp pain in my head, my optics shot open just in time for my optics to off-line, the glow faded from them and my body crumpled in Echo's arms.


	17. Invincible

Chapter 16 – Invincible_  
_

Camisado  
By Panic! At The Disco

_It's not so pleasant,  
__And it's not so conventional,  
__It sure as hell ain't normal,  
__But we deal, we deal._

**No- one's POV**

Echo laid Grim gently to the ground and sprang to his feet, grabbing Ratchet by the shoulder just as he reached the door.

"Where are _you_ going?" he demanded.

"You heard her." Ratchet replied, struggling out of Echo's grasp.

"Finish the program, I'll help."

"What? If she lives, she'll _kill_ me!"

"If she doesn't live, _I'll kill you_."

"But-"

"Ten times worse than she ever will."

Ratchet was about to argue back when he saw the desperate gleam in Echo's optics. He sighed and waited for Echo to pick her up again, then motioned for him to follow as he made for the lab where he was writing the program for the nano bots.

"I'll die for certain if she lives, once the nano bots are in her system, they are programmed to fix any damage of faults in her, so every time she gets injured, they'll keep fixing her. Meaning, she'll be indestructible; she won't be able to die." Echo raised an optic ridge but otherwise kept quiet.

_I already lost one, I'm not going to lose another. Even if it means my death._ Ratchet thought grimly. He wasn't one for letting people die, not if he could help it.

"I'll keep her calm for as long as I can, she won't kill you while I'm around. And she said she never wanted me leaving her side so I guess that's forever since she can't die."

They reached the lab and Ratchet walked up to a computer, typing in the password.

"So what do you want me to do, doc'?" Echo asked, laying Grim down on the examination berth.

"Actually I have nearly finished, I was going to finish it when I…got distracted…" he mumbled, referring to his fatal interfacing session with Acheron.

Echo didn't respond, he was staring at Grim's unconscious body on the metal examination berth, her face was more peaceful than it had been in a long time. His optics shifted to the cylinder of nano bots sitting next to the table, they were swimming and moving around in the tube of light blue liquid. He retched at the thought that these little critters were going _inside _her.

"Okay…nearly there and…" he pressed a key "done!" he exclaimed, he was like a little child doing a science experiment on a guinea pig. Except he was _far_ from being a child, or little for that matter, and Grim Reaper was far from a guinea pig.

The nano-bots received the transmission and started going haywire inside the jar. Ratchet picked up a very, _very_ sharp looking needle and pressed it into the top of the cylinder, sucking up all of the nano-bots into it.

"I was planning on doing this while she was still conscious, and well, let's say it's going to be a little easier like this." He gave Echo a wary look, "You might want to turn away." Echo turned, a little nervous about what Ratchet meant when suddenly a blood curdling scream pierced the air. He spun around and felt his spark shudder at the sight.

Grim was sitting bolt upright, her optics unshuttered but blank. It was like watching a dead person screaming. A dead person with no optics, screaming. Ratchet squeezed the last of the nano-bots in and ripped the needle out as quickly as possible, when the needle left her arm her body crumpled back to the table again and remained still.

Ratchet turned to Echo and shot him an apologetic look, "Sorry, entry was a bit rough. I told you not to look." He added pointedly. "The restoration process will take about an hour, but she should regain consciousness before then, sorry, there's nothing else I can do here. All there is left is to wait."

And so Echo waited.

oOo

_Thirty seven minutes later…_

Spectre gasped, gulping down big gulps of air, like she had been underwater for ages. Echo stood up, watching over her as her chest slowly acquired steady breathing, rising and falling. Her optics on-lined and she bolted upright, looking around frantically for something. She looked frightened, like she had just seen a ghost. Her optics locked on to Echo and she lunged forward, grabbing him in a tight hug.

"W-What just happened? D-Did I d-die? Echo! Echo, what happened?! I'm scared…I…I think I just saw Jazz…"

**Armageddon's POV **

_Thirty seven minutes earlier…_

The pain didn't stop. Death was supposed to be 'inky black peacefulness', right? Then why the hell was I still in agony?

I continued to scream and cry to the uncaring silence, harsh cold and endless black. There were voices, concerned and scared. I could only tell by the tones, as I had no idea what they were saying. Some were giving orders, others were responding quietly, but all of them were scared. What was going on? They faded into utter, pure silence and I felt more alone then I had ever before. The soundlessness was so intense it felt like it could snap my spine in seven different places.

There was a pinpoint of light ahead, a golden spot of warmth. The small spot of light poured over me, blinding me. I felt like I was falling, no wait, I was jumping. But when did I jump? Don't remember that.

There was a huge electrical shock in my chest and I shrieked. My entire body jolted. The shock came again and again, and I kept on screaming, begging for it to stop. I couldn't take this, it was all too much. My poor spark felt like it was going to splutter out any moment. Why couldn't I just die and be done with it? Why did I have to endure this torture? I wanted at least a small moment of peace before I went to hell to burn for all eternity.

I went limp. Time seemed to fall away like water through cupped hands. There was movement in the darkness, a window of blurred life. Slowly it took shape, colors formed, but it was all too fast for me to make out. Everything started to slow down, then it all stopped.

I risked looking through the window, the border between me and whatever was on the other side. I leaned forward and peeked through. It was a bit blurry, but I could see something white and solid. There were small square patterns all over the white thing. What was it?

The window turned into a door. I wasn't scared. There was nothing that scared me anymore. I knew it was life, I could be a better person if I lived. Maybe I could escape hell… no, I was too deep to escape it, but I could still try...

Something stirred next to me. I turned and saw Jazz. What was he doing here? He was dead, but shouldn't have he passed over by now? He gestured to something behind me and I turned around. I saw Grim. But she looked completely different and the same at once.

"Grim?" I demanded, "What the fuck? You're not supposed to be here. You're not allowed to come here. Get through that door or else I'll kill you! Even though you're still dead…"

Grim walked up to stand beside me. She looked scared. She was actually seeing a ghost, and she definitely looked like it. "J-Jazz?" she stuttered, "Is that you?"

He smiled and nodded, enveloping her in a tight bear hug, kissing her cheek. I wanted her through that door, I wanted her to live. There was something out there that needed her, one thing above countless others.

My time was over, I was done, there was nothing out there that needed me. I could only assume I had either done or failed the job God had given me. I wasn't needed anymore.

Grim kissed Jazz back and hugged him like he was a lifeline. After a few moments, he had to pull away. I took this opportunity to speak.

"Grim," I began, "you _have _to get through that door."

"But… Jazz—"

"He's not going to leave you! I know it, knowing him… you're needed out there, your job isn't done yet. I don't know how I know, but I just know, y'know? I'm not needed there anymore, there's nothing out there trying to pull me through. But there's something or rather that needs you, one thing above the countless others. I've either failed my job or completed it. Get out there and do yours as best as you can."

I grabbed her shoulders and shoved her through the door. When she went through, it vanished. There was no way I could go back to the Land of the Living anymore, not that I was wanted anymore.

I turned to Jazz and asked, "Where are you going now, Jazz?"

"Ah'll stay around n' watch ova Grim," he replied, "what about ya?"

"I'll go and burn in hell," I answered casually, "I doubt I'll make it to Heaven. By the way, which way to hell?"

He pointed to his left, where a red spot and white spot appeared, "just go ova there and there'll be two doors, one ta hell an' one ta Heaven. Fate will guide ya through th' right one, dig?"

I nodded, then asked, "Can you do me a favor?"

"Yea, ask away."

"Tell everyone that it's been the time of my life knowing them. Not just the 'Bots, but the 'Cons as well. I want everyone to know."

He nodded, "All righ', Ah'll tell 'em."

I smiled, "and also, like I just said, it's been unreal knowing you. Look after Grim, alright? And yourself too." I hugged him goodbye.

He returned the embrace, "can do. Take care."

I released him, smiled and high fived him. Then I turned and started walking towards the spots, never looking back. I walked for what seemed like years, or maybe minutes, but I didn't get tired. I arrived at the doors. The one on the right was burning red, while the one on the left was glowing white.

I had an idea what was behind each door, so I pushed open the red door and stepped through, muttering, "Bring it on, Satan."

**Echo's POV**

Did she just say what I think she just said? Jazz? An unnerving feeling settled in the pit of my gut.

I slowly put my arms around her, patting her back uncertainly.

"He-he was there…I saw him... he hugged me," tears slid down her cheeks and I reached forward to wipe them off with my finger, she grabbed my arm and hugged it to her chest. Awkward... "He was there… I could have stayed with him, I wanted to talk to him, I wanted to tell him so much! I saw death, Echo. Acheron was there too! She pushed me back. She saved me, that's why I'm here right now. She's why I am alive. Else I would have been stuck there..." She kissed my hand and hugged it again, when I pulled her closer so I could hug her myself. She took in deep breaths, trying to calm herself down after the experience. "I died Echo. I really died." She mumbled quietly. "What would you do if I stayed there, what would you do if I was gone?" she asked me.

I smiled, "I'd come right after you and steal you away back to the Land of the Living."

"You'd die to save me from death?" she asked, her optics shuttered. I rested my chin on top of her head, she knew the answer. "Jazz was there… waiting for me… he didn't leave…" she mumbled.

"I can promise you one thing, you won't even experience it again." I said quietly, making her confused. So I explained what Ratchet had told me about the nano bots.

"I can't die?"

"Apparently not." I said weakly, just so glad to have her back. Ratchet had told me that he wasn't sure it would work if she had already died. It was a fifty-fifty chance. But it landed on the right side, the fates have been kind to return her.

She buried her face in my chest. "I'm not sure what to make of that." She mumbled.

I nearly laughed, "I tell you that you have immortality and that's all you can say?"

She looked up at me, matching my gaze. "Well, what do you say when some TV personality pops up on your doorstep and tells you that you have won a million dollars? No one really knows, some people squeal and jump up and down, some people cry, it all depends. But they know, one way or another, a million dollars can go away, be spent, stolen, disappear somehow. A million dollars isn't eternal. While as eternity is eternal, immortality doesn't go away. It's not something I can lose, and eventually I will want to. Even a million dollars can be lost by death, but what happens if you lose death? How would you react?"

I looked confusedly at her, smiling, it's just like her to say something like that, to delve into the meanings and feeling behind things. It's what I missed about her in the short time that she was gone. It was crazy, it was short but it felt like a million years. "I don't know" I replied, "maybe something along the lines of 'whoo, pie-eating competition, here I come!'" I laughed jokingly. She smiled and chuckled too.

But I couldn't help feeling that something was incredibly wrong...


	18. Monster

Chapter 17 – monster

Numb  
By Linkin Park

_And every second I waste  
__Is more than I can take._

_I've become so numb,  
__I can't feel you there,  
__I've become so tight,  
__So much more aware.  
__I'm becoming this,  
__All I want to do,  
__Is be more like me,  
__And be less like you._

**No-one's POV**

The creature, a monster which belonged in the deepest pit of Hell, was locked in a cell. It was huge enough for it, as it stood at four storeys high, made of military grade steel. The only entrance, a doorway without the door, was blocked by lasers. The monster wouldn't be able to fit through there anyway.

It paced its prison. It was impossible for it to sleep. It had a collar around its neck which injected a solution designed just for it every single hour or whenever its captor pushed a button... although where, the monster didn't know. The solution had the same effect as adrenaline and rage, making the creature nearly uncontrollable.

There was only one person it had encountered who could control it: Meltdown.

The monster could be described as some sort of cyborg dragon, with robotic legs and the wings of a Nighthawk, but the rest of its body being organic. When Meltdown touched it, he melted its armour plating on its robotic half.

There were sirens echoing faintly down the hallway, which the creature's sensitive ears picked up easily. The wall to the left of the doorway opened up and the monster walked out of the dimness into bright sunlight. It knew what this meant: intruders on the island. And if it didn't get rid of them, it would be tortured further.

It exhaled, hating this feeling of being used, walking into the forest, careful to not knock anything over. It headed to the shore, where the intruders would most likely be.

It didn't take long for it to reach the edge of the forest. It saw that the intruder was just a small sailing boat, nothing that could do any harm. And it was probably just a few humans out to have some fun. The collar injected a dose of the solution via a needle, but the monster tried to control itself. It had had a long time to get self control over itself. The beast was injected three more times before it reached overload and was forced to act.

It plunged into the water with an ear-shattering roar. The people on the vessel looked up at it in fear, turning their boat around and sailing away as fast as it could.

The thing had a heart and didn't want to hurt these people with every fibre of its being. It stopped in its tracks just before it broke the ship in half with its massive jaws. It had to be injected four more times before it moved, and another three so it would actually destroy the craft and everyone onboard.

By then, not even its captor could control it.

Even the creature itself did not know what it was doing. All it could remember was running as fast as it could to a source of great violence and hate, the two things that attracted it more than anything, and it hated more than anything it had ever known.

The next thing it knew, it was standing on the rim of a dead volcano, looking down to a dozen giant (but half the size of it) robots. There was an enormous machine of some kind, glowing with pure energy.

The robots stood dead still, staring up at it in horror. It growled menacingly, showing only one of its three rows of human-sized, razor sharp teeth. It was a warning, saying to all who heard it, 'don't mess with me.'

Although, some silver idiot didn't get the message, firing at the beast with a fusion cannon mounted on its right arm.

The shot didn't even scratch it, but it was pissed off that they wouldn't listen, and attacked.

**Prowl's POV**

There was a roar like it came from a creature from the depths of the Pit itself. Everyone stopped fighting, frozen in fear, and looked up.

There, standing on the rim of the hole Starscream and his clone army had created, stood the biggest organic I had ever seen. Well, half organic. It looked like some sort of dragon... a cyborg dragon, shaking visibly. Instead of the typical 'bat' wings, it had black Nighthawk wings and tail fins. It had four mechanical legs, very powerful looking ones, with nasty claws. It had gleaming purple scales. It had three rows of spikes along its neck, the centre row was blood red, while the outer two rows were black. It had the nastiest looking harpoon-head tail blade I had seen in a long time. It had the most stunning silver eyes I had ever seen, the right pupil was slit, while the left was round.

While being the image of terror, I couldn't help myself but find it beautiful at the same time. The rich, almost glowing colours, the way it moved with unreal grace, the way it seemed to have been sculpted by a master... there was no one word to sum it all up in.

It growled, chilling the energon in my pipes. It revealed huge, threatening fangs which looked like they could bite through anything. It had a clear message: don't mess with me. But that idiot, Megatron, didn't seem to understand. He fired at the creature.

It had no effect on its armour-like scales, not even scratching it. But it was fragged off at the fact it had been attacked. It leapt down and roared, shaking the very Earth and fire spewing from its mouth.

Everyone leapt into action, attack it with everything we had. I tried to find its weak spot, but it appeared there was none. I slashed the metallic collar around its neck and it fell to the ground. It stared, opened mouthed at the broken device at its feet. My optics widened when I saw a ring of raw, fresh injuries around its neck, blood beginning to slide down and drip off the thing's chest, which the collar had been, as if it had been stabbed repeatedly very recently and never got any treatment.

The attack halted for a moment. Everyone was unsure what to do now. The creature turned and looked me directly in the optics, freezing me where I stood. For a moment, relief and gratefulness flashed across its eyes. It shook violently and roared again, but this time it was hollow, like its heart wasn't in it anymore, like someone or something else was acting through it.

The fight started anew. Everyone, 'Bots and 'Cons working side by side, tried to take it down with everything they had, but I... I just couldn't attack it, not after the way it looked at me.

It was obvious that the collar had done something bad to the half organic, something that caused that ring of injuries around its neck. Now that it was off, the creature didn't seem to want to hurt anyone anymore, as if the collar had somehow made it do that.

"Prowl!" Optimus yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts, he was trying to hack the thing's foot to pieces, but wasn't going so well, "come on! Help us out here!"

"I... I can't." I stuttered, "I saw something in it, something that doesn't want to hurt us. You have to stop fighting it or it'll get angrier and angrier until it destroys us all!"

"Are you crazy?!" Bulkhead demanded, "That monster will squish us like _nanobots _if we don't take it down!"

"It didn't attack us until Megatron attacked it," I realized out loud, "Listen to me! It won't fight if it isn't provoked! It'll stop if you do first!"

Bumblebee and Ratchet hadn't heard us arguing. They generated an EMP and tried to shut it down.

As the golden orb enveloped it, its robotic parts went stiff. It tried to move, to get away, but instead there was a terrible cracking noise and its legs twisted horribly. The beast screamed. It was worse than its roar, a cross between a human screaming in fear, and a cougar screaming in pain. It must be made of flesh and metal so closely that it could move even when it shouldn't be able to, only to tear its robotic half.

"NO!!" I shouted, "Stop it! STOP IT!!"

"We're trying to immobilize it, not kill it," Ratchet snapped, "Why do you care about it so much anyway?"

I didn't reply, as I was too horrified by what happened next. The beast's scream trailed off, echoing around the entire underground mine, dwindling to a sad whine. It crumpled to the ground, as if in slow motion, and sprawled on its side. Blood began gushing like a river from its mouth, eyes, ears and nose. It tried to inhale, but it choked instead. It couldn't breathe.

It kept on choking and coughing as it continued trying to breathe. Obviously it could stop breathing as easily as we could stop our sparks from pulsing. As it coughed, it sprayed blood like a fountain, only to choke on it worse as it tried to inhale instantly. It looked at me with the most heartbroken eyes I had seen; it knew that only I would help it, and I was letting it drown in its own blood.

I tackled Ratchet and Bumblebee to the ground, effectively stopping the EMP. I promptly got off them and looked back at the being. The blood flow was slowing down, becoming steadier and slower. I cautiously walked towards it, despite my comrades shouting at me, saying it wasn't safe. I ignored them, kneeling down beside the creature in a pool of its own blood. Its silver, melancholy eyes followed my every move.

"It's alright," I whispered to it, stroking its face gently, "no-one's going to hurt you anymore. I won't let them touch you, I promise."

It closed its eyes, heaving a sigh, like it understood every word I said. Maybe it did. It relaxed its whole body, all the anger and adrenaline simply vanishing from it. My air intakes hitched when I saw it grow completely still, it chest wasn't rising and falling. It wasn't breathing. Only then did I realize that it hadn't been breathing in the first place. The bloodflow had stopped completely by now.

"Stay with me, now," I called softly to it, but it didn't respond. I checked for a pulse. There wasn't one.

The base was suddenly rocked by heavy fire from outside. The creature was hit several times, it would've been lethal for anything but it, but of course, it wasn't harmed. Everyone looked up and saw Teletraan-1, functional and flying, trying to shoot down the Decepticons, and maybe the monster as well.

A chilling growl erupted from the creature, its eyes flying open, filled with murderous hate and rage so much that it was almost glowing with an inner fire. It still wasn't breathing! Its ruined legs repaired themselves and in moments, the ruined limbs looked brand new. It stood up, roaring at the repair ship, standing over me protectively.

Megatron gave the order for his flyers to attack the ship and the beast acted as well, crouching and leaping up to the rim with tremendous strength.

**The monster's POV**

I was pissed off now. I was almost always pissed off. But I guess that acting on that anger was all I was good for in this world.

That black and gold mech had calmed me so much I nearly fell asleep. If I fell asleep, I would die, and I couldn't wait for death. I would be free at last. I wouldn't hurt anyone anymore.

That ship was under heavy attack from the flyers, and was already smoking and falling out of the sky. I couldn't fly (I was glad, being Earth-bound meant I was an easier target and had a better chance of dying) so I followed it as it fell, shooting fire balls at it.

It didn't crash though. Instead, it began shifting, folding, transforming. In moments, before us stood a mountainous robot. They started firing at its legs, and I started to tear them to shreds.

It fell to its knees. I backed off, trying to tame the animal I had become. If I was going to finish this guy off, I at least wanted to have some good sport doing it.

Strange, it began to get up, its legs repairing themselves slightly. I held myself back, waiting for it to rid itself of the flyers (which it did promptly) and focus on the _real_ threat here.

I growled again. It tensed up, then rained down on me with laser fire. It didn't hurt, just stung slightly, scratching my scales minutely. I felled it with one stab in the gut with my harpoon-like tail blade.

Two tiny creatures emerged from its foot: a small human and a red and white robot, which ran in the direction of the mountain. I didn't bother killing them, just roaring right in their faces and making their ears bleed.

I waited for the robot to get up, circling it cautiously, watching it closely. It struggled to its feet and fired a couple dozen missiles at me. They did nothing. I slashed it from its right shoulder to its left hip.

It was down again. I was getting no fun out of this guy. Was this the best they had? I decided to end its suffering.

I walked casually up to its head, placed one claw on its chest, then grabbed its neck in my jaws. It screamed. I clamped down and ripped the head right off its shoulders.

There was commotion coming from the base. I was concerned for that dark guy. I owed him. I ran to the rim and looked in. The gigantic device was glowing brighter than ever now, sucking everything around it. That could _not_ be a good thing.

I knew what I had to do. I had to absorb its energy, causing it to break, saving everyone, even that silver idiot, especially the dark guy.

I leapt down, standing side on to the source of the light – a huge, glowing orb of pure energy – and prevented myself from falling in by leaning on the two towering pillars beside the orb. That was basically the structure of the machine.

I could feel the overload of energy overriding my very being, making me shake violently. Stay calm, man, do NOT go mental, this is NOT the time. I saw the dark one looking at me, and I knew he knew we both knew that we would most likely never see each other again. I smiled at him, knowing that my dept was repaid by giving my life for him and his comrades. He was dragged away by a larger green one. He almost looked heartbroken. He shouldn't be. I deserved to die and I had wished for it for a long time.

The power was increasing. Blinding light exploded from the machine. I felt it fold in on itself. The sharp tip of one of the pillars slashed my neck as I was dragged into it. I died almost instantly.

oOo

**No-one's POV**

At the 'Bot base, Armageddon's optics flickered on-line.

**A/N: **ooooooh, cliffy! What do you think the deal with that is? Review and tell me! :D


	19. Ashen Shell

Chapter 18 – ashen shell

I'm Not Ok  
By My Chemical Romance

_I'm ok,  
__I'm ok,  
__I'm ok now  
__I'm ok now.  
__What you really used to mean,  
__Cuz I tell you the truth,  
__I mean it,  
__I'm ok!  
__Trust me.  
__I'm not ok._

**Bumblebee's POV**

When we got out of the 'Con base, which was collapsing in on itself, we rolled to a stop on a nearby cliff, transformed and Optimus asked if everyone was alright. We said 'yeah', but I didn't buy Prowl. He looked deep in thought and sad at the same time.

Was he sad about that monster sacrificing itself? Who cares? It's just a monster, it killed Omega Supreme and tried to kill us. It deserved to die. And I myself was glad it was gone forever.

But Prowl evidently thought differently. It was probably because it was a living thing, and he _hates _it when anything living dies. Primus, he should just get over it.

"That monster is probably still out there... somewhere," Optimus mused.

"It's part organic," Ratchet stated, "if it was dumped in the middle of space, which it most likely would be, it would be dead by now. And if it landed on another planet, it would probably starve to death. We shouldn't see it ever again... or its Primus forsaken corpse."

Prowl's face was expressionless. He just looked at the ground, unmoving.

"I told you my dad wouldn't work for the Decepticons," Sari said, "Now I'm just glad that this is all over." She seemed to notice something and looked down to her left elbow.

We all stared in shock to see crackling circuitry beneath her skin. She clutched the elbow and took a few steps away from her father. She was confused and terrified, it was written all over her face.

"Sari, we have to talk," Sumdac said. Understatement of the stellar cycle!

"S-stay away from me!" she stuttered, running behind my leg for protection. I took a fighting stance. Father or not, this guy would NOT hurt Sari.

oOo

That was then, now it's two days later. Sumdac had taken Sari away so they could talk and she had come back an hour later. She's different now, like she's haunted by some terrible secret, and she won't tell us what it is. Sumdac explained it to us when we demanded to know.

"Sari..." he began, either intimidated by us being fragged off or just plain nervous, "Sari is not actually my daughter."

"We kinda figured that out when we found _there's no data on her_," I snarled, "we can't even prove she exists!"

He was even nervier now. "She was a recent experiment," he explained, "I built her eight years ago, to see if I could create a human with the capabilities of a robot – a cyborg."

I shot a massive death glare at him, utterly disgusted. My best friend was some sort of sick experiment?!

"It worked," he went on, "... sort of. The behaviour chips were all wrong, so she sometimes malfunctioned. I didn't send her to school because she might get a glitch and people would freak out... blah, blah, blah..."

I didn't hear anything after that. I was just in too much shock. How could anyone do this? Bring something to life and then coop them up for their entire existence? No wonder Sari didn't have any human friends, she was never allowed to have them in the first place!

There was a tired groan from behind me, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned around and saw something that made me scream. And scream and scream and scream.

The others turned around and all of our screams filled the entire base, echoing down the street.

A/N: very short, I know, please don't be angry at me. The next chapter will be longer, I promise! 7 pages to be exact :)


	20. General Confusion

Chapter 19 – general confusion

Second To None

By Styles Of Beyond featuring Mike Shinoda

_Back for more,  
Startin' the war to end it,  
Raw,  
Rippin' like I'm working a chainsaw._

**Acheron's POV**

I have never been so confused, freaked out, or lonely in my entire life. And boy, had I been confused, freaked out, and very lonely in my short time on this Earth, and I only remembered 14 years out of 64. I knew five things for sure:

First: I was still 14.

Second: I was the very monster that had haunted my recent coma.

Third: everyone I had once known (actually known, not the people I had just been introduced to) was either dead, on the other side of the world, or thought I was dead. That last thing was just logic.

Fourth: there was no way I could ever go back to my once, mental-because-I-am-insane-till-the-day-I-die, normal life, and it would never be normal in the slightest again.

Fifth: I was dead.

Before I died, I was in my normal-ish life, in 2007. I was meeting people, starting high school, and dealing with my slowly growing insanity, the next stage of extreme randomness.

I had a coma, I guess, filled with terrors and a giant metal black monster. When I woke up, apparently 51 years later, on the other side of the world and after I had just eaten over 500 humans alive, I was that same monster. Then I meet more people, robots actually: a tall, pissed off, then concerned, then disturbed, then disturbING, then very kinky red and blue guy, a short, scared and mentally scarred for the rest of his life black and yellow guy, and a red and white sexy guy. When I say sexy, I mean _sexy._

Then I get knocked out, unconsciously download info on robots of this species, get brain (CPU) surgery, get open heart/pump/whatever surgery, get informed I can either die or keep on going on murderous rampages thanks to a wondrous thing called a Black Chip II, get laid by the hottie, come close to doing something called 'bonding', but kill myself accidentally by tearing my spark (life source/soul/heart, sorta) when he passed out on top of me and jerked in his sleep.

Now that I think about it, this was actually just a normal day in the life of Acheron Pitman.

Now here's where it gets weird. So I'm dead, right? Just floating through darkness. And boy, did it HURT! Then I saw a couple of complete strangers, but I knew their names. There was a door into the Land of the Living, and I shoved the one, called Grim but didn't really look like her, through the door and it disappeared. I get directions to hell and go through a blazing red door.

And here I am now.

Here's the really confusing thing: it's not hell. It's this strange place, fully white. So white that there are no shadows and you don't even know where the walls meet the floor, or the ceiling meets the walls, if there are any.

Standing before me was a figure. I couldn't describe him/her, I can't even find the words to say why I can't, all I could say was that he/she was powerful, maybe a god or immortal. You could just feel the power radiating off him/her... whoever or whatever they were.

Then he/she spoke, in a deep baritone, and I knew it was a male god. I think I knew that voice from somewhere. He filled in all the gaps, told me everything I needed to know. I was a TF guru, and he told me everything I had once known about them, down to the last detail, even everything I had forgotten, which wasn't much. My alias was Armageddon. I was 14. I loved Samedi. I had gotten drunk on several occasions.

My friends were alive, even though they were supposedly killed, and were being held prisoner by the Decepticons, save Fluffy. Jumpy was doing alright, Blitzwing was like a big brother to her. Skullzy and Fyromaniac were protected by Blitzwing because they were friends of Jumpy, and were able to annoy Lugnut to their spark's content. By the way, yes, they were TFs too.

Recently, I had been mistaken for a Decepticon by the Air Force and was so badly damaged that I needed to change my alt form, as my armour was damaged beyond repair but my spark could only just make it. Thus I went from a black SC/8T Ultimate to a black F-117 Nighthawk.

We talked, discussing random stuff and new stuff I remembered on my own. He didn't tell me anything about himself, not even his name or what the hell he was. As he told me new stuff, it didn't feel fake at all, as I could actually see the memories unfurling in my mind's eye. I knew he was telling the truth and I trusted him.

He told me about a new kind of technology, something that could help us blend in better. He told me all the details, drawing the designs in the air, and I absorbed every bit of information like a sponge. This could prove extremely useful.

As we talked, he mentioned my mission. I remembered it.

I couldn't wait to get going.

But I couldn't help feeling that he had left something out... something very important...

oOo

My optics on-lined. I grinned. I was in Med Bay.

I was tired too. I yawned and stretched, getting off the healing berth and walking out of the Bay, towards voices drifting through the base. When I got to the room everyone was gathered in, I rubbed my optics and groaned tiredly.

Bumblebee was the first to turn around. He was the first to start screaming his lungs out. The others followed suit.

Was I really that bad looking in the morning? Or were they just freaked cuz they thought they were seeing a ghost or zombie or something? I looked down at my body, looked normal to me.

"What are you screaming about?" I asked, "I come bearing gifts."

They stopped screaming and Prowl asked, "What do you mean 'gifts'?"

"I know a way for you to blend in," I said, "It's a new technology called Cyborg Droids. It can allow you to walk among humans, in crowded streets, almost anywhere attracting little or no attention. Imagine what good you could do with that. You could learn more about Earth than you ever could before. You could get used to this completely different world and understand it better, it would be much easier to protect if you knew how it worked better." Then in a lowered voice I added, "You could help Sari, get her life back on track."

"Where did you learn this?" Optimus asked.

I replied, "A colleague sorted out all the confusing stuff and told me about this tech. He showed me everything about it, and now I can build it by memory, but it would help if I could write it down. You want this stuff or what?"

There was a pause, but then one-by-one they nodded slowly. I smiled, "Come on Ratchet, we have a lot of work ahead of us."

oOo

The droids were complete. When we had finished the first one, Ratchet had gotten the idea and we worked faster and faster. They were done much sooner than I had thought they would be. They all looked like identical guys with no features, and two identical girls also with no features. When I say they had no features, I'm saying you can't tell if they're little kids, adults or old people. All of them were dressed in jeans and white t-shirt.

I volunteered to make the switch first. Ratchet got everything ready, and when he was ready I nodded. He hesitated, neither of us knowing if this would work or if I would die. I smiled to him and he returned it, before pressing the button and I fell into unconsciousness.

oOo

**Echo's POV**

I was the last one to get a cyborg droid.

When I came to, I didn't open my eyes yet. It felt really weird. I knew I was smaller, and I felt more vulnerable. For one, the cold attacked my body almost instantly and I shivered. It was made out of such soft material. I could squish myself if I wasn't careful!

It was freaky but not freaky at the same time. Acheron had told us that if we got squished or blown up or torn to shreds or got a shower of bullets or whatever, our consciousness would just go back to our robot forms. Easy. Simple. Nothing to worry about, right? Then how come I couldn't bring myself to open my eyes?

A gentle hand traced my jaw line and an equally gentle voice said, "It's all good, Echo. Everything reads green. The whole thing is fine. Wake up."

My eyes opened and met blood red eyes. A pale face, as pale as the hand caressing my cheek, was framed by shoulder length black hair. If her eyes were odd and silver, I would've mistaken her for Acheron. Grim Reaper smiled down at me. And I returned it.

"You feeling ok?" Acheron asked, her face appearing in my field of vision. Seriously, those two were practically twins.

"I'm fine," I said, "like Grim said, it's all good."

oOo

It took a bit of getting used to, the new body. I just chilled around the base, hanging out with the other teens. We were deciding human names for us. Sari had gone to bed a while ago, as it was past 11 at night.

We had decided on our names: Bulkhead was Bob Goldman, Ratchet was Ryan Van De Rhee, Optimus was Oliver Acidiocono, Bumblebee was Billy Basso, Prowl was Peter O'Connor, and I was Edward Cullen. Armageddon and Grim kept their real names.

I had seen myself in the mirror. At first I would have classified myself as albino, but the almost glowing blue eyes didn't fit. My skin and hair were white, my skin not so white, the hair naturally in spikes. Damn, I looked like a ghost. I was tall too, with what Acheron said was the 'body of a dancer' and that she had constructed it especially like that, with a confusingly knowing look in her eyes. That was cool. I always liked dancing. She also said that I was good looking, _very_ good looking. I had just brushed this off, feeling heat on my cheeks.

The others looked pretty cool too. Bee was a blonde, with a single black streak and crystal blue eyes. He was kinda short, with an athlete's form, but everyone was short compared to Bulkhead, and he was a head shorter than me. He had bright green hair arranged always in a 'Mohawk' and dark green eyes, with more muscles than everyone in the base put together.

Acheron was looking out the window. It was raining heavily outside, a massive storm. A mischievous smirk spread across her face.

"Acheron," I said cautiously, knowing that something crazy must be going through her mind, "what are you thinking?" the conversation stopped and everyone looked at Ash, my same worry reflected in their eyes.

She turned to me, her smirk broadening, and sang one line, "_she make you take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain_."

It took a moment for it to click, being so random and all, and Grim's eyes were the first to widen and twitch, "You want us to take off all our clothes and start walking like Egyptians in the middle of a storm in the middle of _Detroit?!_"

She shook her head, "Not all of them, just down to your underwear. It's just too hard to move with soaking, heavy jeans. Come on, it'll be fun!" she stood up, waiting for us to follow.

Slowly, one by one, we got to our feet and followed her as she went into Ratchet's, Prowl's and Optimus' rooms and convinced them to come along too. As a group we walked outside and stood there for a moment, no-one wanting to be the first to strip.

She took off her top and pants, throwing them aside, without a trace of embarrassment, even though all she was wearing now was a black bra, underpants and an encouraging smile. I felt a rush of heat to my cheeks, but she didn't seem to notice it.

The rest of us followed suit, Bumblebee being the first to start strutting his stuff. I joined in, showing off some of my own moves, the water spraying off my limbs in streams of diamonds with every spin, every kick, every flip.

Optimus was getting the drift, although he had to loosen up more. His blood red and dark blue hair a mess, sea blue eyes bright with enjoyment.

Ratchet was reluctant, not understanding. His dark blue eyes watched us and didn't understand, his snow white hair with the red tips plastered to his face and neck. Prowl didn't get it either, golden eyes watching us in the same way, shaggy black hair also plastered to his head, with almost black strips which used to be gold. Heh, and a gold goatee to boot.

The almost-twins had to come over and convince them to join in, which took a bit of effort from all of us, but then they were having fun.

Everything came to a standstill when a shout rang in our ears, "HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!"

We all turned and saw a small group of teenaged humans and young men gathered just a few metres away, three girls and four guys. The guys had weird hair, except for one which had monocle. The girls almost looked familiar...

One was standing still, staring at me. _An exact reflection of me._

There was a long silence, before Ash spoke up, "Holy slag, it's the long lost twin."

The mirrored me looked at her for a moment, studying her face before asking slowly, "Acheron? Ash? Holy shit, is that really you? How'd you end up on the other side of the world, half a century later and look like you haven aged a day?"

"I could ask you the same question, even though I know half the answer. Now give me a hug, I haven't seen you forever." She opened her arms and enveloped him, a gesture he returned.

When they let go, I said, "This is the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me. Who are you?"

"Argent Amer," he answered, "and you?"

"Edward Cullen," I replied, holding out my hand, "nice to meet you, brother."

All three girls in his group started giggling and sighing. One of them collapsed, but was still conscious. Ok...

He shook my hand and smiled, "cool to meet you too, bro. So... what are you doing dancing half naked in the middle of the night, in the middle of a storm?"

Bee cut in, "an optimist would say we're half dressed." He jerked a thumb at Ash, "it was her idea."

"Ah, that sounds just like her."

"And what are _you _doing walking around in the middle of the night in the middle of a storm?" Optimus asked.

One of the guys, the one with the monocle, replied, "Ve vere... chilling, zen zeh storm hit. Ve've had to valk halfway across Detroit so far, und ve still have a long vay to go."

"How about we drive you?" Bulkhead offered.

They smiled and nodded. Ratchet and Ash went back inside, hiding their glowing eyes from the new people. There were the roars of powerful cars' engines, and a black Audi R8 came roaring around the corner, skidding to a halt with skill, while a white and red Nissan GT-R came around the corner and stopped much more subtly.

Ratchet got out of the Nissan and Ash got out of the Audi. They can change their alt forms now?

"Whoa, sweet wheels," the dark skinned girl complimented, "old though. Cool... retro rides."

Ash grinned and gestured for them to hop in. The girls got in the Audi, and the guys got in the Nissan. Both cars took off in a spray of water.

"How'd they do that?" Prowl asked.

"No idea," the rest of us answered in sync.

**Acheron's POV**

I swear I knew these girls.

"So," I started, "you three got names?"

"Yeah," the dark skinned, black haired, purple eyed one said, "I'm Renushka."

"I'm Jess," the red haired, crystal blue eyed one introduced herself.

"And my name is Madeline," the tall, brown eyed, and black haired one responded.

Fyromanic! Jumpy! Skullzy!


	21. Reunion

Chapter 20 – reunion

My Name Is  
By Eminem

_Hi__._

**Armageddon's POV**

"Holy shit!" I swore, swerving but regaining my control, "Oh, my God! I thought you guys were dead! What the fuck happened to you?"

"Acheron?" Skullzy exclaimed, "you're alive!? We thought you were dead too! This is unreal!"

"You're telling me," I responded, "seriously, what happened? I heard the story about how the Gizmo Glasses apparently didn't work, but how are you here?"

"The Glasses _did _work," Fyromaniac corrected, "well... all of them but two. Massacre died during the transformation and Jumpy's malfunctioned, so she didn't get transformed. I was captured by the 'Cons, Skullzy followed me, then went back to the hospital to get Jumpy. She came back to the 'Con base to try and get me out, but both of them were captured."

I didn't tell them that I didn't know who this 'Massacre' person was.

Jumpy shrugged, "It wasn't bad. Blitzwing treated me good, he was like a big brother. Because Fyro and Skull are my friends, they also got protection by Blitzy, and we got to annoy the hell out of Lugnut. I got bored sometimes, so they let me work on this thing called a 'Space Bridge'. It's very interesting work. I finished it pretty fast, considering how big it is, and now they're getting me to work on improving it and other of their technology."

"After a while we just weren't prisoners anymore," Skullzy explained, "we were only allowed out of the base when we had to stretch our wings. By the way I'm a white Mikoyan MiG-29 and Fyro's a mottled red and black Sukhoi Su-37. The 'Cons treat us pretty good and, if anything, Lugnut gets treated worse by us than everyone else put together."

I laughed, "The son of a bitch deserves it. Nice alt forms, some of the best from our time. So do I drop you off at the base or would that blow your cover?"

"There's a building on the edge of town," Jumpy said, "just drop us off there and we'll be good. There are underground tunnels which we can use to get back to the base."

"Except for Argent, are the guys the 'Cons?" I inquired.

"Yeah," Fyro answered, "the one with the monocle is Blitzwing and the guy who looks like a footy player is Lugnut."

"You pick on a football player?" I chuckled, they laughed in return. Then I asked, "So how does Argent come into all of this?"

"He's the Retro Guy," Skullzy explained. I remembered the name, but I couldn't place it, "he has this amazing ability to mime any song you play, even ones no-one has heard before, but he usually did hits from way back when, especially the early 2000s. He used to be a street performer, and everyone who saw him said he's unreal. There have been searches for media players and stuff but no-one has ever found one. People have watched his entire day-long performances, from when he found a place till when he went home and they haven't seen him really set up, but sometimes they see him go into the building he performs in front of. All he brings with him is a display folder with lists of hundreds of songs, himself, the cool but not expensive-looking clothes he wears and his hat which he collects money with – lots of money, the people love him."

"Are you saying—?" I began.

"That he sings the songs himself in the actually artists' exact voice?" Fyro interrupted, "perhaps. Perhaps not. Some people think that, while others dismiss it as impossible. Some people even think that he somehow makes the music himself without any instruments or devices. Personally, I don't know what to think."

"He's got other talents that he uses in performances, too," Jumpy said, "he's an amazing dancer, and seems to know every move known to human kind and every song on the planet. He not only mimes the words, but the _instruments_ as well."

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

Jumpy continued, "For example, if there's a guitar in the song, he can play air guitar so well that you could put the real thing in his arms and it'll sound right. It's like he can actually see whatever he's not actually playing."

"So this guy's a freak?" I asked, "Not as a bad way, but like Don Bradman. He had unreal hand-eye coordination. I mean, no-one can hit the ball that far so consistently. He was a freak."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Fyro said, "his appearance alone definitely makes him one, but because no-one's sure how he does the singing thing you can't include that. We found him one day and he just followed us home. Turns out he doesn't have one. He gets his clothes from Vinnies and places like that mostly, cuz he knows it goes toward helping people like him, he bought food with the money from odd jobs and performances and slept in alleys. All of his possessions were in a single plastic bag. The place it just on the right corner."

I stopped in front of the building. It didn't look old or abandoned or anything, it just looked like a bunch of units. Good cover.

I took more notice of the guys. Soundwave had short sapphire hair and eyes and was pretty tall. Lugnut stood over a head above him, though, with firm muscles, like a footy player, blood red eyes and spiky deep purple hair. Blitzwing's eyes were crimson red, with his monocle perched in front of his right eye, and violet and black hair mixing.

Ratchet and them looked like they had gotten off on the wrong foot, like he knew something was not right about them and vice versa. Even so, I didn't think that any of them knew the other were TFs, otherwise they would be attempting murder.

Blitzwing draped an arm casually around Jumpy's shoulders. Fyro explained in a whisper to my ear, "She loves him as a big brother, but he loves her like a girlfriend. He's still waiting until she's ready to go further, but she doesn't look like she will anytime soon."

I nodded and said bye as they went inside the building. We got back into our respective cars and headed back to the base.

Ratchet said over the comm., "_those guys, except for Argent, just didn't seem right. I don't trust them. They're trouble."_

"Right," I responded, "you're a quick one to judge."

"_Call it a gut feeling_."

"I didn't get any bad vibes from the guys. I reckon they have a sweet sense in hair styles. I think they're cool."

"_I'm telling you, those young men are bad news. Don't trust them, in fact, stay away from them completely._"

"Uh huh... and you suddenly don't respect or trust me enough to look after myself, why?"

"_It's not like that, I know you can look after yourself, but if you were caught alone by three at once in your cyborg form... I don't even want to imagine what might happen to you."_

oOo

**Grims POV**

I stared after Acheron as she and the others drove off. Suddenly I felt very self conscious. I looked around and spotted Echo, quickly ducking behind him and hiding myself from Bee and Opty's view.

"Hide me," I whispered. He looked over his shoulder at me and chuckled.

"Nice underwear." I blushed and turned my head away quickly, my wet hair whipping his pale back.

"Nice boxers." I said, he looked down for the first time and seemed genuinely surprised at his white boxers. His face turned the same red colour as mine when we both realised that white fabric goes transparent when wet… and it clings to the skin… every little (and _big_) curve.

"Hide you? Hide _me_." He laughed, pulling me in front of him. Prowl stifled a laugh and Opty and Bee turned to stare at what he was laughing at, making my blush even deeper. Echo chuckled and spun me around to face him, hugging me in his pale arms. Bulkhead whistled "Nice view." I could swear my cheeks would have turned scarlet by now.

"Hugzilla." I muttered.

Echo pulled away and looked at me strangely. "What?"

"Hugzilla! That's what I'm going to call you from now on." I smiled. He rolled his eyes and pulled me into a hug again.

"But I like hugs…" he mumbled, then opened his eyes, looking straight down my back.

"Bulkhead is right. It is a nice view." He said, I rolled my eyes and pulled him back inside.

"Come on, let's get you a pair that _aren't_ transparent." I said, pulling him towards his room, I sat down on his bed and turned around to give him some privacy. A few moments later pale, cold arms circled themselves around me from behind, I smiled and hugged his arms. I spun around, he was wearing black boxers now, I laughed, "We match." I was wearing a black bra and undies. He chuckled and picked me up in his arms, carrying me outside into the rain.

"Do I still have to hide you or can you hide me now, Prowl and Bulky are starting to scare me." I asked him teasingly.

"Hmm…I'll have to think about that…" he said, throwing me over his shoulder, I squealed, I could feel my undies riding up over my ass.

"Put me down! Put me down!!" I squealed as he started spinning me around. He was laughing. I briefly wondered what Acheron was doing now, and why did those girls look so familiar? It was funny when they squealed when Echo gave them his human name, but he was _my_ Edward Cullen. Wait a minute… who would know about Twilight in 2058? Oh shit…

"Echo! Put me down! I'm serious!" I yelled, all humour gone from my voice. He nodded and put my feet back on the ground. "We have to go after those girls." I said quickly.

We rushed outside and I demanded, "Bumblebee, get your true aft over here right now. We have to go after those girls."

He raised an eyebrow, his eyes glowing blue, "You're bi now?"

I choked, "What? Jeez, and they think I'm the kinky one. How come you keep getting mentally scarred for life if you're kinkier than _I_ am? Oh well, you're more hyper than Skullzy, and that's killing all logic and breaking every law of nature and reality."

His true form rolled around the corner, in alt mode. We scrambled into the car, dismissing the fact that we were still _slightly _underdressed. We tore down the road after the girls, tracking Ratchet and Acheron's energy signatures. We passed a red and white Nissan GT-R and black Audi R8. I could see through the windows that there was only one passenger in each vehicle. All three vehicles screeched to a halt.

_Shit._ I thought to myself. _Where the hell are they?_

I jumped out of the car – ignoring the fact that I was only in my underwear – and started pacing angrily up and down the sidewalk, pulling at my hair with my hands. I was so damn close! My friends, which I thought had been dead for months, were alive! And I had _just _missed them!

A drunk was staggering down the same path and blinked at me, thinking he was dreaming that a tall, mostly naked chick was standing right outside his apartment building! I stared at him, what the hell did he want?!

"Hey gorgeous, wanna come back to my apartment?" he slurred.

I looked at him disgustedly, and told him politely to "FUCK OFF!" I barked. Echo hopped out of the car as well and walked over to me, standing in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Piss. Off. Or you die," he snarled, very un-Hugzilla-like.

The drunk stared wide-eyed at him, then screeched, "Naked ghost!" and took off down the street. Echo looked confusedly back at me and I shrugged. He wasn't that pale…was he? Or was I just used to it…? Eh, didn't matter anyway, drunky-perv was gone and Echo and I were still stuck – nearly naked – in the rain. That and I had lost my friends. Why do I feel like such a loner now?

"Defensive much?" I asked teasingly.

"Why are you guys here?" we turned around and looked at Armageddon, who had spoken.

"Where are the girls?" I asked.

"We dropped them off at their place," she answered, "why? Are you bi now?"

"Did you talk to Bee or something?" I asked, "and NO! I am NOT bi!! I think those are our friends."

"Yep," she nodded, like it was the most natural thing in the world, finding out that your supposedly dead friends are alive and kicking.

I gaped at her, I had been looking for them for months and now I couldn't even talk to them. Ah, well. They are human-ish after all, they need their rest. I would see them in the morning – when I was dressed and dry. Then we could catch up on the last few months. I chuckled, imagining us gathered around a little table, sipping tea and eating 'biscuits' like old ladies. But with us it was more likely to be Samedi and tim-tams… if they still had that stuff.

"Ok, how the FUCK do you know?" I demanded.

"They told me," she replied, "duh. I don't read minds, that's your thing."

I rolled my eyes and started towards the car again, I was getting a little tired. It was after midnight after all, but then again, that was pretty early for me.

We drove back to the warehouse to find Opty and Bulkhead making love out the front. No clothes. Their boxers were strewn across the road and we ran over them a few times on our way back in. Bee was sulking in a corner.

When Opty and Bulkhead came back in, with tire tracks all over their new boxers, which Armageddon was staring at, _intently_, Opty saw Bee and said, "Hey, don't be all upset, baby. You've done it several times. I need some variety. That's what you said to me after you had interfaced with Prowl. And Ratchet. And Ultra Magus. And Sentinel. And..."

"Alright!" Bee snapped. He sniffed, "Sentinel wasn't any good anyway, so you can't count him. Just for future reference, was Bulkhead good?"

I looked disturbed at all three of them and turned to the nearest wall and started banging my head against it, trying to rid myself of the vivid mental images. Echo placed his hand between my forehead and the wall.

"It hurts later, _believe me_." He said, rubbing his head. I shuddered, why was Bee so… _horny?_ Was the freaked-out-when-he-saw-everyone-else-making-out thing just an act? The Ratchet and Armageddon thing certainly wasn't…

Armageddon re-entered the room, a frown on her face.

"There's a leak in my room. And Ratchet and my bed's all wet…" she pouted, "Proowwwl? Can we sleep with you?"

_Oh crap! __**Orgy!**_ I turned and started hitting my head against the wall again, and noticed to my amusement that right next to me Echo was doing the same.

"Ok," Prowl answered a little too quickly.

"Don't go denting your heads, Echo and General Fluffles," Armageddon said to us. Great. A new nickname to add to the list. When will anyone actually call me Spectre, I wonder? "You can join us if you want…" I looked up from the wall and met Echo's gaze… and retched.

"'Scuse me." I said quickly before running outside and puking. Sleeping with Ratchet… and Armageddon… and Prowl… that's too much for my delicate stomach to handle… but sleeping with Echo was fine by me. I came back inside and noted to my amusement that my bed was also soaked, thanks to a leak coming from the roof. Out of curiosity I walked into Acheron's room, the bed was totally _dry._ I retched again.

Was she sick of Ratchet already?

That girl changes guys faster than she changes clothes.

I walked back into the main room to join the others, I looked up at the sky out the window. It was about 2 AM, and I didn't feel like sleeping…_yet_. Prowl had Armageddon sitting on his lap, Ratchet and Bee were talking, Opty and Bulkhead had started up where they left off. Which even I must admit, it would have to be pretty fun in the rain. I walked over to Echo and he pulled me into a hug. What was it with him and hugs? He was tired, I could tell. But that wasn't enough to stop the hug-machine. I looked up at him and grinned.

"My bed is all wet." I stated, "Armageddon's is perfectly dry." His right eye twitched and I nodded. I was trying to convince myself that she might have accidentally walked into my room by accident but knowing Armageddon, _nothing_ was by accident. "I'll need a place to sleep…"

oOo

I couldn't sleep. I slipped out from between Echo's warm arms and walked over to the window, it was still raining outside. It was about 3:30 AM by now. I looked back at Echo, who was still sleeping peacefully. His face crumpled slightly, unconsciously noticing my absence, and rolled onto his other side, getting comfortable again.

I smiled, pulling on some jeans and a T-shirt and slipped out the window, landing neatly on the ground. I walked across the road, through the rain, and made my way down the road to the park. It was only a ten minute walk and it gave me time to lose myself in my thoughts. By the time I made it to the park I was soaked, but getting a cold or anything like that didn't even cross my mind. Acheron was right, it was difficult to walk in soaked jeans, what made it easier though was the fact that I wasn't wearing any shoes.

I walked out into the middle of a grassy clearing, and spun around in the rain, my soaked hair plastered to my face. I stuck my tongue out and tasted the rain. I looked around, a heavy mist had settled on the ground. Must be near the lake, then.

I took a step forward and slipped on the muddy grass, getting mud right up the right side of my jeans. I cursed and stood up, making my way towards the nearest tree, and clambering up it, in the distance I saw others in the park, I would have seen them more clearly if it weren't for the mist, they were staggering, and had bottles in their hands. _Oh crap._ As they got closer I could see they were teenage boys – the type that were in gangs and got in trouble with the law – so I climbed higher, until I found a sturdy branch that was well concealed. They came closer to my tree, not even noticing me up here, I nearly breathed I sigh of relief, if it wouldn't blow my cover. One of the guys tripped and fell, passing out at the base of the tree. The other laughed and sat down next to him, taking another swig of his bottle. _Oh crap_. This could not end well.

Half an hour passed and the other guy began to feel drowsy, my feet were beginning to go to sleep, perched there on the branch I decided that this was my opportunity, and began to shift on the branch, he was too drunk to chase after me by now. I moved to the farthest branch away from him and jumped down, hitting the ground running. I staggered for a moment, my feet reacting painfully to the drop and the half hour of not moving. The man looked up, dropping his bottle and advancing on me.

"Hey, girly, where ya goin?" he called after me. I looked back quickly in panic and began to run again. He wasn't as drunk as I had hoped and was able to run after me, albeit clumsily. I pushed myself further, willing my legs to go faster but he was keeping up with my pace easily. How the hell did he manage that? I broke out of the park and my feet screamed at me as soon as I hit the gravel path, but I dared not slow down. My long legs gave me a bit of and advantage but his shoes levelled that out. I cried out as I stepped on a sharp rock and saw a trail of blood behind me.

He grinned when I slowed down, sensing an easy victory. I looked back in panic, he was getting closer, I whipped my head forward again just in time to slam into something hard and fall down on my ass, which was already covered in mud. I looked up, and saw Echo. Thank God!

He stood with his hands on his hips, glaring daggers at the drunk. I scrambled to my feet, standing behind Echo, feeling 100% safer than I felt a couple of seconds ago.

"He bugging you?" Echo asked, not tearing his dangerous gaze off the guy, who was getting closer.

"No, he was terrifying me."

He nodded and grinned evilly, glad that he had a reason to kill the guy now.

"Hey baby! Where ya goin? Come here!" he called out, ignoring all 6 feet 7 of Echo standing in front of me.

"Get back to the warehouse." Echo hissed quietly.

"What?" I complained.

"Just go." I nodded and complied. Just when I was ten metres away I head the man scream as I guessed Echo punched his nose in. I shuddered, almost feeling sorry for the poor creep, but touched at the same time that Echo cared so much.

I laughed and remembered a saying: _I want the guy I can run to with tears running down my face and the first thing he says to me is "Whose ass am I kicking, babe?"_ I smiled, well, I got that guy alright. I dared not turn around as I limped home, grunting as I stabbed my other foot, and that started bleeding too, so I resolved to walk on my toes home.

The sky was slowly getting lighter, but only faintly because sunrise was still a long time away. I looked on the ground behind me and saw the faint trail of blood that I had left and wondered if simply crawling would be easier?

Suddenly strong arms scooped me into the air and off my grateful feet. I sighed in relief, it hurt so much less not walking at all. I looked at Echo and wrapped my arms around his neck as he carried me bridal-style, "Well that was quick." I said, he grinned, then suddenly the grin disappeared and he frowned at me, that added to the fact he was carrying me made me feel childish and like I had done something wrong.

"I can't leave you alone for one moment can I? Not with you getting yourself into trouble all the time, like this. Why are you so irresistible to drunken bastards, huh?" he said.

I smiled and rested my head against his chest, "there's a simple solution to that." I said quietly, he looked at me quizzically. "Don't leave me alone." He laughed.

"Just because you don't sleep doesn't mean I can't." he replied. I stared dreamily at his face, his shaggy white hair was plastered to his forehead, which looked incredibly cute. We soon made it back to the base and he set me down on a couch. I lifted my feet up to cross my legs and immediately regretted it. I gasped and kicked them down quickly. Echo spun around and I grinned sheepishly.

"Nothing, I'm fine!" I lied. He narrowed his eyes and bent down to my feet, lifting one in his hand and sucked in his breath quickly through his teeth, grimacing. "Oh they can't be that bad!" I complained, then took a look. The skin on the underside of my feet was all ripped and scratched, bleeding, and had several small rocks lodged in it. "Ew." Was all I said, in all truth, they looked _gross._

He lifted me and took me over to a basin where I washed the blood off, and knocked all the stones out. Then I bandaged them up, feeling rather stupid, waddled over to the couch again, pouting. I felt like a cripple already. He laughed and joined me on the couch, wrapping one arm around me and pulling me into a hug.

"Hugzilla." I mumbled, he smiled.

"Am I going to have to carry you everywhere?" he asked teasingly.

"I can walk!" I complained

"You can waddle, you can limp, you can stagger and crawl, but I wouldn't call it walking." He grinned. I shoved him lightly in the arm. It was still raining outside.

_I love the rain, _I thought to myself, smiling, _I love Echo. They both have something in common: they wash away the dead parts and bring new life._

A/N: _LOL! Me and my bestie, Grim, wrote this together. It was fun! Crazy, disturbing, but fun. Review!_


	22. River

Chapter 21 – river

Time Of Dying  
By Three Days Grace

_On the ground I lay,  
__Motionless in pain.  
__I can see my life,  
__Flashing before my eyes._

**Armageddon's POV**

A few relatively uneventful (and HOT) days after I caught up with my other friends, apart from Bumblebee and Bulkhead being mentally scarred for life multiple times, I had another random thought. Rather, Voice told me. I was full of those. First we had to go shopping, then we had to go for a long drive, but then we could chill. The random thingy would be fun!

I dragged Sparkles along with me. It's awesome having a platinum card. Because the 'Bots were saving the world practically every week and now had the cyborg droids, the government was paying them for protection.

We got back, gave them the stuff we bought, told them to put it on, threw some more stuff together, and told them that we were going for a long drive that would be worth it.

We headed down to the docks, the guys asking what we were doing. We said we were going to cool off. It was almost 40 degrees, in _late autumn,_ so yeah, what we had in mind should be good. We got on a large tour boat and went north out of Lake Eire, into the Detroit River. The day was so hot that clouds started to form. Big ones.

The water spray felt good, especially when coupled with the air whipping past me. I sat down on the very front of the vessel. After a while, arms circled around my shoulders, pulling me gently back on a bare, solid chest. I closed my eyes and leaned into it, peace spreading through me.

"I love you, Ratchet," I murmured.

"Uhh... I'm not Ratchet."

My eyes snapped open and I whirled around. I hissed, "What the hell do you think you're doing, Prowl?!"

Although I must say, he looked hotter than the day without his shirt on...

"Just experimenting," he mumbled, "y'know... last night—"

"I'm insane," I growled, "I'm messed up in the head. I do crazy stuff all the time and I don't mean any of it. What, did you think I was _serious_?!"

'_Remember the deal. Don't you dare tell him about me.'_

_I've kept you secret all these years. What makes you think I'll tell him now?_

"I'm sorry," he apologized, "I just wanted to know what it was like."

"Like _what _is like?"

He leaned down, catching my lips in his. One hand held my chin so I couldn't turn away, the other arm wrapped around my waist so I couldn't get away. Much as I didn't want to, I melted against him, kissing him back. After a while we had to pull away for air.

"Oh. My. God."

I looked in the direction and saw Grim standing there, shock written all over her face.

'_Busted.'_

"...Crap."

"Crap is right, Army—"

"Don't call me that. Ever."

'_Yeah, that's _my _nickname for you.'_

"Whatever. You're cheating on Ratchet already? You switch guys faster than you switch clothes."

"It means nothing. Tell anyone and you die."

"I won't. But Ratchet will either be pissed or broken if he finds you two."

We stood up abruptly, not standing right next to each other. It was just awkward now.

"So what do we do now? Can't have Ryan Van De Rhee finding out I kissed Peter O'Connor." His human name. Rhee is pronounced ray.

She grinned evilly, "I think I know a way. The ship is only so big, you two together at all will look suspicious, and since you've been found out, you'll give it away. So..."

"Are you saying what I think you're about to say what I might say you're saying if you don't say it first? Say..."

"Yep."

I looked over the edge of the ship. I sighed; she was right. I climbed over the rail and stood on the side, holding on tightly.

"Armageddon, what are you doing?" Prowl asked.

I looked around at him, "You coming?"

I jumped.

The water was cold when I dived in, stunning me for a split second. My head broke the surface and was even colder with the wind.

"Come on in, ninja!" I shouted, "YOU OWE ME 20 BUCKS WHEN I GET BACK OUT! IT'S _FUCKING FREEZING_!!" Grim just laughed her head off and I went back under.

The water was warming up, maybe because I was swimming. It was clean, and I could open my eyes without hurting them. There was a splash above me, silvery bubbles floating to the surface way above my head. I saw Prowl dive down and I grinned, swimming away from him, teasing him.

He wasn't as experienced a swimmer as I, but I was a bit slow. A hand closed around my ankle and I thought it was him, but it was slimy. The water became so muddy that I couldn't see my own nose. I twisted around. Where was Prowl. There were fast black figures all around. Something wrapped around my gut. All my breath escaped me.

More hands grabbed my arms and legs. I couldn't kick. Ice spread through me. I began to freeze from the inside out. Needles of ice raked my arms. My blood mixed with the water. Was it still water? I tried to scream, but that was impossible.

The things started dragging me down.

My legs were the first to go numb. Then my torso. Then my arms. Only my head had any feeling. But that was fading. Fast. My lungs were burning with snowy fire. I tried to suck in air. My lungs only filled with water.

I was pulled down and the water got darker. I was absolutely terrified. I was definitely going to die. Did these things attack boats? Were my friends safe? Was anyone on the whole river safe? Prowl might die. Did they have him? Could he escape?

... Could he save me, let alone himself?

'_No, it's illogical."_

The dark brown turned even darker. A pure black figure descended on me.

I gave up.

oOo

It was still cold and black. But I wasn't numb anymore. Was I dead? Probably. The idea of death sounded good. No more stress. No more pain. No more Chatterbox. Just peace and easiness.

I was drifting in a place between life and death, somewhere I had been a lot before. Before me was something peaceful and easy. Death. Behind me was something hard and challenging. Life.

Which one?

I wanted death, I wanted death so badly, but there was a vacuum-like wind behind me, pulling me towards life. I didn't even fight it, as I knew I would come back here again, possibly soon, and I would have another chance then.

But that didn't stop me from asking the nothingness: _What could life want with an insane slut like me? _

_How can I be of any help to the world? _

_Why won't you end it?_

_Aren't I useless? _

oOo

Slowly, very slowly, feeling returned to me. Colours and shapes flashed across my vision so fast I had no chance of seeing them. Sounds, muffled and incomprehensible, mixed together.

All of a sudden, I could hear birds, rustling leaves, and waves slapping stone. I became aware that I was lying in someone's arms, warmth emanating from them like they were the sun itself, although they did nothing to melt the ice in my veins. My eyes opened and the first thing I saw was a pair of gold eyes like sunshine.

Prowl's eyes.

"C-care to ela-aborate?" I stuttered through chattering teeth. I wasn't shaking though. Weird.

He stroked my face, holding me closer, almost protectively, "I never found the water cold, and couldn't help but laugh when you yelled about it being 'fucking freezing' and that Grim owed you '20 bucks'. Those... things that took you under didn't attack me for some odd reason. You were unconscious when I got you, and brought you to the surface. I swam to the nearest land, which just happened to be this island. I think it's called Peche Island, and sometimes Peach Island. I called out and scanned the area, but there's no-one on this whole island, and, apparently, no-one has been for a while. Couldn't imagine why; it's so beautiful here."

I looked around. We were on a picturesque olden-day-looking bridge, made of stone. It stretched over a (somehow, oddly enough) deep canal, man made by the looks of it, with a stone wall on either side, the top meeting the ground. The grass was emerald and trees, ferns and heaps of other plants were all over the place, the trees forming a green, orange and crimson canopy, letting through dappled gold light, so like his eyes—

'_Snap out of it, Army.'_

_You got a problem with me saying his eyes are gold?_

'_No, I got a problem with you falling for him.'Whatever._

'_Seriously.'_

_I know when I'm falling for someone, and I'm not falling._

'_Not even for Ratchet?'_

_Shut—_

'_You know I'm right.'_

_No, you're not._

'_I always am, you've said it before.'_

_No-one is right 100% of the time, not even a teen._

'_Perhaps. Look at him.'_

I turned my gaze away from the stream and looked at Prowl. His shaggy hair streaked with gold, like the real thing not blonde, ruffled in the gentle breeze, framing a tanned face. His suns for eyes shone with awe and wonder at the world around him. Damnit, his gold goatee was so hot—

'_I heard that! You say he's hot, you know you love him! Say goodbye to Ratchet—'_

I'd had enough.

"SHUT UP!!" I roared, punching the bridge so hard that I broke my fist, but I didn't notice as I was too damn mad, "SHUT UP YOU SON OF A_ BITCH!!!_ YOU DON'T KNOW THE FIRST FUCKING THING ABOUT ME! GET OUT OF MY HEAD **RIGHT NOW!!! **_**GET OUT!!!!**_ I swear if you don't get out RIGHT NOW, I'm gonna crack my skull and fucking _dig you out!!!_"

Prowl was freaked. He backed up, hands up, saying softly, "What did I do? Army—"

I turned to him, and I knew that my eyes were burning with rage, "_never _call me that FUCKING name AGAIN!"

'_Remember the threat—'_

"_TO HELL _with the GODDAMN threat! It means NOTHING! You hear me?! NOTHING!! _You're nothing! _Your words are _nothing_ to me! I'll _kill _you _right now _if you don't GET OUT NOW!!!"

'_You can't kill me.'_

"Watch me," I growled, dangerously low.

Then I screamed. It was nothing I had ever thought I could've done. It was loud and animalistic, something that should belong to a demon of some sick kind. It scared the birds right out of the trees.

I brought out the knife.

'_NO!'_

Before Prowl had a chance to stop me, before anything else in the world happened, I stabbed myself in the gut. Surreally slowly, I fell to the ground. My own blood pooled around me, dripping into the stream. I heard something bubbling, like boiling water, and hissing, like a pissed off snake. There was cracking, and the bridge _moved._

Prowl rushed over to me, gathering me up in his arms. The old stone crumbled beneath his feet as he ran with me across the falling bridge. When he reached the other side, he turned around and I saw it fall into the water.

The whole stream turned muddy as many, many somethings churned the water.

Everything man made in the area crumbled to dust.

Every single living thing began to die.

Prowl ignored it and turned his attention to me. He put me gently down, and as my broken hand touched the ground, I gritted my teeth and hissed in pain. He bit his bottom lip, and his gaze flickered to the knife still embedded in my stomach.

"Take it out," I breathed.

He hesitated.

"Do it!" I snapped.

He touched it, snatching his hand back as I grunted in pain. He faltered before he grasped the hilt and wrenched it out. I cried out, trying to keep back a scream. He pressed a hand over the freely bleeding wound, murmuring, "No, don't leave me, Armageddon. Not now, not like this... _please_."

It hurt so bad, but at least pressure helped a little. My breaths were coming in ragged and shallow, and I started shivering violently. It was then I noticed all the sunshine had been cut off.

"_Cold..."_

Prowl pressed his other index finger to his temple, activating the comm. link, "Autobots, Autobots! Armageddon's been stabbed and she's shaking real bad. It's hot, I know, but I think she's shivering from cold. We're on Peche Island. Get an ambulance, _now_! Not Ratchet; she needs treatment ASAP."

He cut the link and caressed my cheek, whispering directly in my ear, "Don't worry, everything will be alright. The others will get an ambulance and you're going to hospital. They'll take care of you, but for now, I guess I'll have to do."

He tore a long strip off his shorts, going around and around so as to get the most fabric. He wound it around my middle, over my wound, making sure it was tight enough to keep in the blood. He gathered me up in his arms, holding me protectively and walking along the canal, moving downstream. He pushed through the rapidly rotting plant 'life' and we found ourselves standing on the edge of the island, which was rimmed with lots of grey dust. That must be what was left of the stones.

I looked up and saw that a big storm was gathering. The sky was black with heavy clouds, and winds were whipping up the river water, capping the waves with white foam. The water was a rich blue when we were on the boat, but now it was dark grey. Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed, and fat drops of rain fell on our heads. In moments, it was a steady downpour, drenching us, the biting wind making me turn to ice.

Prowl hunched his shoulders, feebly trying to shield me from the rain. He huddled under a large tree, which was leaning perilously and seemed about to collapse, attempting to protect me from the rain and wind and cold. He failed miserably. The trees began falling, deteriorating in front of our eyes.

Nevertheless, I buried my head in his chest, seeking warmth I knew I could never acquire again. It was a false comfort, as I would most likely die before the storm was out.

It was all my fault.

oOo

**Etrius' POV**

We were sent out in an ambo and then speedboat to find the victim and bring them back to hospital. Whoever they were, they were on Peche Island. Strange, no-one went to Peche Island – it was cursed, everyone knew that, and anyone who tried to use it for anything was screwed.

It took us a while to find them, as we had to battle the wind and the waves. We finally found them. By then the rain was torrential, gradually washing away the sinking, rotten island. How was that possible? How did it happen? They were soaked to the bone, the wounded one was weak and unconscious, and the other was still as a statue, hunched over the unconscious one with her in his lap. I think I saw his tears mixing with the rain.

He turned to look at us as we pulled up, dull gold eyes filled with woe, mostly black hair plastered to his dripping wet face. He looked like he had lost all hope for his comrade. We got out of the boat, and as I carried the unconscious one back to the boat, my heart stopped and I stared, open mouthed.

She was my aunt, the exact same as the day she disappeared, all those years ago.

oOo

**Armageddon's POV**

I was back in the black place. The peace was pulling stronger, and I wanted so badly to go there, but there was a deep pulling towards the life. Then I heard something I never wanted to hear again.

'_I will never leave you. Screw the threat, you say? Here's just a taste of how I will punish you.'_

Pure evil touched me, and I screamed far worse than I had just before I stabbed myself. It burned me from the inside out worse than all the fire in the world. I writhed and twisted like a live wire. My bones were burning and cracking like twigs in an inferno. My blood turned to lava and melted my muscles and veins, spilling out of my skin and destroying it with sizzling hisses.

My eyes snapped open without seeing and I screamed louder, trying to run, but found that my wrists, ankles and middle were bound. There was weight on my shoulders like thousands of hands, and I was sure they would crush me. I thrashed more violently than before, jumbled noises and voices ringing in my ears.

My eyes focused and I saw Ratchet's worried face.

'_You are a monster. Your blood destroys everything it touches, including you. You are a traitor. You deserve to die. And I can make sure of that.'_

I wept bitterly.


	23. A Bunch Of Idiots I Call My Besties

Chapter 22 – a bunch of idiots I call my besties

Are You With Me  
By The Potbelleez

_Together, together,  
__We're stronger as one.  
__Are you with me?_

**Armageddon's POV**

I was in hospital for five weeks total after the Peche Island thing. It had disintegrated before it sunk and washed away in the rain. Apparently I had been poisoned. The venom was unknown, but most similar to a Taipan snake's and I was in intensive care for three weeks.

Someone was always by my side, but I could barely stand to have Prowl around, so I always pretended to be asleep when he came. It wasn't him, he was a great guy, but it was bloody Chatterbox. I couldn't even look at Prowl without Chatterbox giving me extra pain. There was always pain.

When night finally came and everyone left or fell asleep on the chair by my side, when the lights in my room had gone out and I was left in darkness, the pain would grow to its strongest, and I couldn't help but cry until I fell asleep.

It was another painful two weeks until I finally got out.

oOo

"_Is Armageddon there?_" I heard someone say through my comm. link.

"Armageddon here," I responded, "who is this?"

"_Hey, it's Jumpy," _I recognized her voice now.

"How'd you contact me?"

"_I tracked down your energy signature and hacked into your comm. frequency, but that doesn't matter. I've made something that might interest you."_

"What is it?"

"_Do know seven or more fit and stupid people around?"_

'_I know you, Army, and you're crazier than all your friends combined.'_

"Of course I know people of that description. You're talking to _me_."

"_How much do they weigh?"_

oOo

"I call it the _Sea Streaker_!"

Jumpy was a very good inventor.

The _Sea Streaker_ looked like a cross between a sailboard, a wave cutter and a sail boat. The crimson red a yellow-gold body was long and thin, with a flat top made only for standing on, the entire vessel made out of hollow aluminium, the words _Sea Streaker_, printed in fancy black writing on both sides. At the back was a motor with a rudder. The Streaker had a large white sail, a strong pole encircling it, leaving some room for the sail to move, which was attached to the sail by a big steel clip. It was floating on the water, anchored to the shore by a thick rope, so you couldn't see the three skis at the front and two at the back. The outer ones at the front were on an angle, so that there was always one on the water when it turned. It had no safety features on it.

'_Why are we doing this again?'_

_Because near death experiences are fun. _

"Armageddon, you're insane," Bumblebee said, staring at the invention like the small crowd which had formed around us, and the media we had called to this.

"You're all idiots, which is why you're all here," I replied, referring to the 'Bots, Grim and Echo. I wasn't stupid, just crazy, and Jumpy knew what she was doing.

"Are you sure this thing is even _safe_?" Optimus asked.

"Of course it isn't... maybe," Jumpy answered casually, tying her long red hair into a pony tail and detached the rope, "which is why we're taking this baby on its first ever test trial. Now get on, hold onto the rail and don't dare let go until I tell you. Bulkhead, Echo, Ratchet and Armageddon, on the right side, Bee Optimus, Prowl and Grim on the left. I'm on the rudder. Get up on the count of three."

As she directed us, we put on a pair of gloves with gripping dots, the _only safety feature_, grabbed the rail on our respective sides, hauled ourselves up on the count of three, and didn't let go even as it rocked dramatically.

"You'll love this, Optimus," Jumpy stated, "As you can see, this thing requires a hell of a lot of teamwork. In fact, if we don't work together, it could fall over and someone could die." What comforting words.

She started up the small motor to get us out of the crowded dock and onto open water. People in boats, on land, and the press in the speedboat stalking us stared at us and the _Sea Streaker_.

It was a very windy day and soon we were streaking around the open water of Lake Erie at 20 knots. Technically, we weren't wearing clothes, they were swimmers, and we were all over the place, and this thing was meant to go fast, so... in a way... it _was_ designed for streaking. Scary. But fun as hell. Jumpy cut the engines and the only difference it made was it was a bit quieter. The _Sea Streaker _rose up onto its skis and sliced through the waves with very little resistance.

Jumpy instructed us well and got us to turn right. Everyone on my side leaned back as far as we could, while everyone on the left side leaned against the rail.

Of course, there was much screaming, maniacal laughter (all me), and yelling at passing boats, "How's it going, good-looking people?!" while waving enthusiastically.

Their reactions were lots of waving back, taking photos and videos, yelling responses, laughing, gasping, gawking, running to the boat, and just staring wide-eyed.

Fyro would've hated all the attention.

We loved it.

We were approaching a large ferry, and everyone on board rushed to the side to see us, causing it to tip over dangerously. To try and reverse the problem, we circled the vessel. It levelled out and didn't have a chance to roll again before we were at the back. We circled it a few more times, the media speedboat shadowing us the whole way, and were off.

Everyone on the ferry mistook Echo for the Retro Guy.

We were racing the wind and waves towards Dinobot Island. Jumpy warned us as she turned on the motor and unclipped the sail from the rail. It went limp, folding down on itself and the vessel sank down, the skies going back under the water. She slowed the _Streaker _down as we got closer. When it got into shallow enough water, she cut the engines and we jumped off.

We were laughing so hard, were so tired and so out of breath, that we had to get the media people, all six of them, and both people controlling the boat, to help us pull both vessels ashore.

For a minute or two, we just lay on the sand, catching our breath and eating the food we had left with the other people for safe-keeping. When we were ready, they interviewed us.

I was the second person to talk to the radio woman. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Armageddon."

"Really?"

"Yeah, that's what everyone here calls me."

"Who invented the _Sea Streaker_?"

"Jumpy the Jester. She's a genius when it comes to machines."

"How does it feel?"

"Unreal! The adrenaline is going through you the whole time. I don't think there's very much that comes close to going top speed on a craft with one single safety thing, a pair of gloves, with a bunch of great friends, yelling your head off to everyone you pass. It's really, really good."

"So who would be able to be part of the crew?" that was my technical question. Echo, who had been interviewed before me by her, had described it to her.

"Only eight of the fittest, strongest, most idiotic and with highest endurance can even think about going on this thing. We have the professionals here today. And one of them has to be all that, even more so, and actually know what they're doing. They'd be the person who steers, which would be Jumpy. But let me tell you, it's definitely worth it."

"Thank you, Armageddon." She finished up and started questioning Ratchet.

The conversations were basically like that. When we were done, we boarded the _Sea Streaker _again and headed out to open water, the press still stalking us. We went back to the dock, yelling at everyone within earshot, "This is the first trial, and it works!"

We were hyped. The people who heard us made their awe known by clapping and cheering.

We got back to the dock, packed up and headed back to the 'Bot base. It was too dark when the doors were opened. The windows were blocked and there was an eerie dripping noise.

We stepping in cautiously, but before the light was switched on, Bumblebee tripped over something. I flipped the switch and we saw what had blocked the windows, what was dripping and what he had tripped over.

We screamed.

But it was what was written everywhere which stabbed dread into my heart.


	24. Silent Screams

Chapter 23 – silent screams

London Bridge  
By Fergie

_Oh shit (oh shit, oh shit)  
__Oh shit (oh shit, oh shit)  
__Oh shit (oh shit, oh shit)  
__Oh shit (oh shit, oh shit)_

When we stopped screaming, silence echoed around us. Then...

"Shit!"

"Fuck!"

"Slag!"

"Oh my God!"

"Holy Primus!"

"Motha-fragging slag!"

"Scrap metal!"

"No fragging way!"

"Oh frag!"

'_I REALLY like this!'_

Gore. Blood. _Everywhere_.

There were parts of bodies strewn all over the floor, pinned up against the walls and bound to the ceiling with delicate white thread. It was a huge web that covered all the surfaces of the room. Bumblebee had tripped over a pile of bloody flesh chunks. The windows were caked with dry blood. It had to be at least a few inches thick and no light got through at all. How many people died for the blood to get that thick? There weren't any complete bodies anywhere, just hundreds of bits and pieces.

In the very middle of the main room were the body parts of Lugnut and Blackarachnia, caught up in a web of the same delicate white thread, dripping and stained with their own energon. The body parts were arranged as if someone had ripped them all apart ruthlessly and tried to put them back together, but you could still tell the carcasses weren't whole.

There were several huge bundles of white thread, like cocoons of prey for whatever monster had done this, hanging low from the ceiling. I didn't think I even wanted to know what was in there.

Every single bone that was once part of the now dead humans and animals was up against the webs covering the walls, ceiling and floor like a giant cocoon. They formed the words 'you're next' over and over again.

It was the bones that chilled me to the core.

'_Whoever did this has taste!'_

I was the only one who heard Optimus' whisper of despair, as he was standing right behind me, "Elita..."

'_Ha ha! This is hilarious!'_

_How could you be so evil? He just lost his femmefriend!_

'_I'm part of you, so you should know.'_

I didn't respond.

I put a comforting arm around his shoulder. Not many knew that Blackarachnia used to be Elita One. But being the guru, I had to know.

Ratchet cast a worried look at me, which I returned. We were scared for each other. I didn't want to lose him and I could see that he didn't want to lose me either. I took his hand in mine and squeezed it gently and got one in return.

'_You're worried about him? Pfft, whatever__. You don't even want him, you want Prowl, remember?'_

_Shut up, dickhead. I love Ratchet. I love Prowl too, but as a brother, nothing more. Got it?_

'_You know I'm right.'_

I felt Optimus start to go weak. "Optimus, stay strong for me," I murmured. I placed two fingers on the side of his neck. His pulse had stopped. His eyes were half closed. His knees were buckling. "Shit! Optimus, don't go anywhere!" I gripped both his shoulders and tried to keep him standing, but his strength was leaving him.

He looked right at me and I knew he saw someone else. He breathed, "She's gone..." before his strength gave way and he collapsed on me.

All the air was knocked out of me and I couldn't suck any back in. It wasn't so much his weight, it was more that he had landed _right _on top of me, and my gut was squished. I managed to rasp, "Can't... breathe..."

Echo rolled an unconscious Optimus off me and helped me to my feet. I said to Ratchet, "You gotta get him to a hospital. His pulse has stopped. Something's seriously wrong with his heart. It could be a heart attack. And for some crazy-ass reason, his real self won't wake up. I don't even know where it is."

Ratchet nodded, his eyes glowing. In a moment, his alt form parked just outside the doorway. He and I carried Optimus into the ambulance, bringing Echo and Grim along as well. The doors shut and the ambo sped down the street, headed towards the Red Cross hospital.

oOo

I waited outside Optimus' room. I heard someone say, "Are you Acheron Pitman?"

I looked up. A man stood before me, about in his early 30's, black skin and hair, his chocolate brown eyes gazing into my silver ones. Judging by his uniform, he was a doctor.

"Yes," I answered, "Who are you? And how do you know my name?"

He grinned, his eyes shining, "My name is Etrius Moore. My father was David Moore, and my mother was Amelia Pitman before she married—"

My eyes widened in astonishment. Amelia was two years older than me. "That's my half sister! Are you saying... you're my _nephew_?!"

He nodded, "Yes, I am."

I stood up abruptly, "Holy crap! How did this happen?"

"Sit down and I'll explain everything," He said, and then added, "if you explain why you look the exact same you did on the day you disappeared."

We sat down and he started talking, "I already told you who my parents were. Note, _were_. They were killed in a stickup when I was eight. My twin brother, Phoenix, and I had to go and live with your sister Rebecca. We took the deaths very differently. I wanted to help people so that no-one would have to go through that, so I later became a doctor. Phoenix, who already had anger management problems, wanted to get back at all the bad people in the world, so he joined the Air Force the moment he was old enough.

"The other day when I rescued you in the chopper, I thought I was dreaming. I didn't think it was possible. I have this locket," he pulled out a silver oval locket on a silver chain, opening it to reveal two pictures; one of me as I look now and one of Rebecca as I last remembered her, "It belonged to my mother. I received it in her will, which also asked for me to wear it always. So when I saw you, I recognized you instantly. I think... I think that she always knew you were still alive, however it was that you made it."

I delicately took the pendant in my fingers, staring at my sister's face. I had to blink back tears. It had been so long since I had last seen her, and she had been going through a rough time.

"How's Rebecca?" I asked, releasing the pendant, which he tucked back under his shirt.

"She's alright," he responded, "she's happy, got a job as a teacher, and a nice husband named Phillip. They have two sons, Jackson, who's 28, and Gus, who's 33. When I told her about you, she couldn't believe it at first. But when she saw the truth in my eyes, when she knew I wasn't lying, she started crying. She asked to see you when it was confirmed you are you."

I nodded, happy for my sister. I knew she would get through her troubles, as nothing lasts forever, and was glad her life had turned out so well so far.

"So what about you?" he asked, "What's your story?"

"I'm not sure if you'll believe this," I began, "but every word is true, I swear by Kid World law." He nodded, understanding the rules of Kid World, "me and a few friends were having a sleepover at Spectre's place. It was the morning after the sleepover. When we were ready and about to pack our bags, we went into Spectre's room, where we had slept, and it glowed like everything was made of silver and put under a spotlight..." and I told him everything.

No-one really paid attention, either walking by or too caught up in other conversations to care. But Etrius listened intently, and I saw a look of recognition and realisation, like a puzzle had finally and neatly fallen into place after years of nothing clicking. I could tell he had been told bits and pieces, all of which made no sense until I told him.

When I was done, there was a silence. He stared at the floor, and I could see the gears turning in his head. After a moment, he let out a sigh and looked at me, smiling.

"Thank you for telling me that," he said, "When I tell my family, they will be very relieved and really want to meet you."

I nodded, "I can't wait to meet them."

A doctor came out of Optimus' room and said, "He's stable and awake now. You can see him, but only for a short while." We nodded and went into the room.

Optimus looked so much different. He looked tired, weak and nothing like the hero I had known long before I had even met him. He smiled at us and we returned it. I sat down on the chair beside his bed and questioned, "How are you feeling?"

"A bit tired, but otherwise fine," he answered.

"So you're Oliver Acidiacono," Etrius stated, reading the clipboard on the end of Optimus' bed. Oliver Acidiacono was his human name. Etrius continued as he sat down on a chair on the opposite side to Opty's bed as me, "I'm Dr. Etrius Moore. So... how'd you come to know Ash?"

Opty cast a glance at me. I don't think Etrius was ready to know he was a TF. So I lied, "we met in a supermarket. He was behind me in line and I didn't have enough money to buy the stuff, so he gave the guy some of his money." I shrugged, "He's a nice guy, said he worked in a nearby bookshop. I went there a lot, it's a great little place, and I met a few of his friends. Time passed, now he's like a big brother."

Etrius nodded slowly, "Yeah, and I met you when you were cut up into a million pieces five minutes ago. I see through lies like a perfectly clean window. The truth, please, no matter how crazy it might sound."

Opty and I exchanged glances again. I responded, "He's Optimus Prime. He jumped through one of my friend's TV and ended up being 30 centimetres tall. He and all the local celeb giant alien robots you've seen running around lately followed him, and then followed us as we skipped 50 years and half the world. I talked to an unidentified entity that I know only as The Guy and he told me of a technology called Cyborg Droids before I came back from the dead. Long story short, you're looking at Opty's one. That good enough for you, Doc?"

He smirked, "Now that's what I like to hear. Plain old truth. Better than any fancy lie." He turned his attention to Opty, "So you're Optimus Prime, eh? Nice. Honour to meet you." He stuck out his hand and Optimus shook it, albeit weakly. He took note of that and said, "We should leave you to rest."

We both stood up to leave, and I waved goodbye to Opty. We left the room, closing the door behind us. I went outside, Etrius following me, and leaned against a tree, my back to the world, facing the brick wall of the hospital.

I pressed a finger to a temple and pressed a hidden button, activating the comm. link to everyone, "Everyone, come to the Red Cross Hospital ASAP. Don't stay at the warehouse. Optimus is fine now, but he had just had a heart attack. Oh, and I found my nephew, so hopefully we can stay with him the night." I looked at him and he nodded, "yeah, we can stay with him."

By the time everyone got to Opty's room, he was awake and they were all giving me WTF looks when I introduced them to Etrius.

Grim was the first to ask, "How the hell is your nephew old enough to be your dad? Mind you, your boyfriend is." Etrius looked from Ratchet to me, his eyes widened, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

"I have sisters," I replied, "You know Amelia? She had twins and she and her husband died in a stickup when Etrius here and his twin Phoenix were eight. They moved in with my other sister, Rebecca. We skipped 50 years, you know. Stuff happens in that amount of time."

That satisfied them. We headed over to Etrius' place and stayed the night. His brother, Phoenix, came around and we met him too. He was cool. As I lay on the fold-out couch beside Ratchet, unable to sleep, I realized something.

I knew why we had come here. I knew what we had to do. Before sleep eventually got me, I swear I saw a white figure whispering to me:

"You have to kill all the Cybertonians."

oOo

**No-one's POV**

The monster hadn't been killed by the space bridge explosion.

It was indestructible, after all.

It wanted revenge of all those who had tried to kill it. It rose from its place under the lake, walking towards the hills, where its enemies resided. It crushed cars, people and homes beneath its feet, but it didn't care at all. All that mattered was the task at hand.

It came to the place, the dead volcano where it had last seen them. It was devoid of life. The monster growled. It closed its silver eyes and concentrated, seeking out the hatred and evil that they were.

When it opened its eyes, it found itself somewhere very different. It was inside a large metal room, but it had no idea where it actually was. There were sirens shrieking and red lights flashing, which irritated the monster's sensitive ears.

A purple and grey robot rushed into the room, firing ice. The creature bared its freakish fangs in a cruel grin as it lashed out, tearing it in half.

The being wasn't satisfied; it knew that there were still enemies around. Letting its feet guide it, it walked through room after room. When it saw a white robot it didn't recognize, staring at it, a mottled red and black one and a human standing beside it, the being just moved on. They had never done anything to it, so it had no reason to kill them.

It found a familiar silver one and roared. The robot looked at the thing with fearful red eyes, before it raised its arm-mounted weapon. Another roar erupted from the monster as acid spewed from its jaws. All that was left of the robot was a puddle of molten slag.

A pink and grey one entered the room, and was crushed underfoot by the creature. It smirked evilly. Its job _here_ was done, but it still had work to do.

oOo

**Acheron's POV**

_A voice, deep, powerful and un-Earthly, spoke to me, and I knew it was from that unknown presence, "You are more than I told you. They're not coming back."_

_I realized who was with me in the darkness. The Guy._

"_Yeah, and thanks to you, _I'll_ just keep on coming back," I snapped, "I've learnt from others that immortality sucks and blows." _

"_You know the deal: you complete the mission and you'll be able to rest in peace next time someone tries to kill you."_

"_Oh joy. You haven't even told me what this 'mission' is! How the hell am I supposed to complete it?"_

"_You'll find out soon enough."_

_I rolled my optics. I didn't even know this guy's name and he was always acting like he was God and talking really unnaturally. I asked, "You gonna tell me who you are?"_

"_No."_

"_Then why are you here?"_

"_I'm about to show you your new form. The one that attacked the Cybertronians a while ago."_

"_Yayz."_

_An image of a monster appeared before me. It looked like some sort of dragon... a cyborg dragon. Instead of the typical 'bat' wings, it had Nighthawk wings and tail fins. It had four mechanical legs, very powerful looking ones, with nasty claws. It had gleaming purple scales. It had three rows of spikes along its neck, the centre row was blood red, while the outer two rows were black. It had the nastiest looking harpoon-head tail blade I had seen in a long time. It had the most horrible, spark-less silver eyes I had ever seen, the right pupil was slit, while the left was round._

_It was _freaky_. And pretty blood ugly._

"_Eww..." was my first reaction. My second was, "you just __had__ to make me a complete freak of nature, now didn't you?"_

"_You were one since before you were born, you know that." _

_That cut deep. Real deep. I had been called 'freak', 'bitch', 'weirdo', and many other names my entire life by everyone I had ever known, so I had gotten used to it and become the... _thing_ I was now, but coming from _him_ made it hurt really bad inside. Especially since he was a god. Or something._

_I bit my bottom lip and fought back the tears._

_The jerk seemed to realize that I was hurting and said, "I'm sorry, but it's true. It's common knowledge."_

"_Piss off, asshole," I growled, trying to keep my voice from shaking._

"_Well, you're pathetically weak."_

_That's when I snapped. "JUST BECAUSE I'M NOT YOU DOESN'T MEAN I'M A WEAKLING! NOT EVERYONE IS A GOD, YOU KNOW! YOU SON OF A BITCH! __**LEAVE ME ALONE!!**__"_

"_Armageddon—"_

"_I SAID PISS OFF!!!"_

_There was silence. I felt completely alone. I knew he had gone. _

When I began to drift towards consciousness, I could tell something was wrong. There was something cold beside me. What was that? Wasn't Ratchet sleeping beside me?

I opened my eyes and saw the protoform for the Cyborg Droid. The featureless face, the white hair, the grey skin. That could only mean one thing...

I leapt out of the bed and looked around. Grim and Echo had been sleeping on the floor, and they still were, completely untouched. I rushed into the guest room, where Bulkhead, Bee and Prowl had spent the night. I only saw the protoforms.

I tried to contact Optimus, but there was only static.

Oh good God.

'_Oh, this is just too good!'_

The front door banged open and I went into the living room. Jumpy, Skullzy and Fyromaniac stood there, eyes wide, fear and confusion written all over their faces.

"How'd you find us?" I asked.

"We tracked down your energy signatures," Fyromaniac replied breathlessly.

"But that's not what we're here to tell you," Skullzy said.

Jumpy gripped my shoulders, tears forming in her eyes, "The Decepticons! They all dead! Even... even Blitzwing..."

Holy crap. He was like a brother to her!

"The Autobots are dead too!" I exclaimed, "All of them!"

"Wuz goin' on?" Grim asked sleepily as she and Echo woke up.

I tried to say, 'all the Cybertronians are dead', but my voice was drowned out by the drone of an alarm clock. I slapped the snooze button. But even as my mind was clearing, I knew two things:

1. There were voices and light above the blanket and

2. There was something boxy and very uncomfortable under the mattress.

I opened my eyes...

A/N: Just one more chapter, then a sequel. It's getting more and more serious, not to mention crazy. Review!


	25. Tranquillity

Part 3 – Chapter 24 – Tranquillity

Petrified  
By Fort Minor

_What?_

**Armageddon's POV**

"Damn, set the alarm clock in the afternoon again." Someone said.

That voice was disturbingly familiar...

I gasped and sat bolt up. I looked around. I was in someone else's room, I had never been in here before, but I recognized it...

Holy crap! Sam Witwicky's room!

I rolled out of the bed and fell onto the floor. I was dressed in the same clothes I had been before: dark jeans, simple purple top, sneakers.

"Who are you? And what are you doing in my _bed_?" the same person asked.

I jumped up and looked in the direction of the voice. There was Sam himself. The mass murderer son of a bitch. And Mikaela. The person with more layers than an onion, and brains (wow!), which was far more than I could say about the killer.

"Holy slag," I swore, looking out the window. All five Autobots were there in vehicle form, the garden was destroyed, and WOW, Bumblebee is hot, "You guys looking for the glasses?"

"Yeah," Mikaela replied slowly, "who are you? What are you doing here? How do you know?"

"I'm Armageddon AKA Acheron Pitman, last time I checked, the Autobots' grandsons, par Ratchet, and Ironhide's is replaced with Prowl's, just died and we don't know why—"

'_Sucked in.'_

"—I'm the Goddamn guru! It's my bloody job to fucking know, you son of a bitch!"

_I just lost my mechfriend and four friends! You dickhead! Don't you even _have _a heart?!_

Chatterbox didn't reply.

"Hey!" she snapped.

But I was out of the room before she could say anything else, lying, "Stay in this house or else I blow it sky high." I found my way to the kitchen surprisingly fast.

Mrs. Witwicky saw me and demanded, "Who—?"

"A mass murderer, professional assassin and a cannibal," I snarled, "no, technically not a cannibal, just a mass murderer and professional assassin. But I _did _eat over 500 humans before throwing all of them up and contaminating one of the world's biggest lakes. IF that loser you call your son doesn't kill anyone in the next few days, you will all live. If not... burn in hell. Oh, and by the way, this place is rigged. Go outside at all and it blows up."

She looked shocked, but I grabbed the bag, rummaged around in it, took out the glasses case, checked for the glasses, which were there, and went outside before she could knock me out with a baseball bat.

"Got 'em," I muttered.

My eyes glowed crimson as I called on my true form. Strangely, it was just down the street. How'd I get there? Same way the rest of me got here, I suppose.

The other me transformed and stood in front of the house, waiting. I climbed onto my hand, and next thing I knew, I was sitting in the cockpit of a Nighthawk which was speeding close to the ground, ripping up roofs, sending people, plants and animals flying and generally leaving death and destruction in my wake.

I was so pissed off.

I opened the comm. link and barked, "This is Armageddon, is anyone there?"

"_Skullzy."_

"_Echo here."_

"_Grim's listening."_

"_Jumpy's all audios."_

"_Fyromaniac's on your tail."_

"Everyone, get your afts to Hoover Dam right now. This is movieverse, and Mikaela and Sam were just looking for the glasses, which I have. They shouldn't go out of the house, as I said it would blow up. Jazz is alive, Opty's tall, Bee's hotter than ever, Ironhide's old and Ratchet's young... _younger_. Let's mess Tranquillity of 2007 up."

The same way we had ruined Detroit... present and future...

I could pick up all five 'Bot signatures up on my scanners. I slowed down and ascended until I was flying in front of them and _not_ killing the whole neighbourhood. I was out of their firing range.

I opened a comm. link to them, "Don't mess with me. A bunch of psychos and professional assassins are on their way. If you so much as look at any of us funny, you all die, then I take the Allspark and kill all humans. By the way, one of us is four times taller than Optimus and could squish any of you. Got it memorized?"

There was silence from them and I cut the link, knowing that they got the message. I continued leading them to Hoover Dam.

Next on my list: steal the Allspark and save Megatron's life, among others...

A/N: and that's the end of Holy CA-shizzle! All will be explained in good time! Do youse (it's a real word! HA! Now you can't say that's bad English! Seriously, I saw it in an OXFORD dictionary a few times and spell check likes it) know who else Armageddon could save by stealing the Allspark? Take a WILD guess. Short chapter, I know, and sorry. Sequel! It's called 'Phychotism', so keep an eye out for it.

Like I said, it's going to get very, very serious... more so than it will be crazy and generally confusing...


End file.
